Seven years after a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States has enabled states to legalize sports betting, the game industry has prospered throughout the country, in what historian Jonathan D. Cohen calls a “reckless bet”.
The problematic game is upward across the country. Even in Wisconsin, one of the rare states that has not legalized online sports betting, a gaming assistance line based in Green Bay has seen a Asign in calls and growing demand for its dependence services.
Cohen documents the development of industry and its consequences in its new book, “Losing Big: the reckless bet of America on the sports game. “The book tells how the legislatures of states and professional sports leagues quickly adopted sports betting to create a $ 13 billion industryWith sports books (that is to say places of play), often develops legislation on the game to respond to their own interests.
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“It took us 30, 40 years for state lotteries to go to nearly 40 states, and we are going to hit our 39th state (with legalized sports games) in just seven years,” Cohen told WPR “Wisconsin today. “” So, it took place extremely quickly. “
Unlike most other states, Wisconsin does not allow sports betting in person in tribal casinos.
“Wisconsin is unique. There are some other higher Midwest states in the same category that legalized sports betting, but for any reason, they did not go all the time – did not go” everything in “, the word game – to legalize online sports games,” said Cohen.
But technological Savvy can easily find bypass solutions. And the culture of sports betting has taken off in the Wisconsin, attracting younger bets “that only entered the game because it is so accessible,” said Cohen.
Cohen joined “Wisconsin Today” to talk about what he calls this “new chapter” in the American game and why he thinks that the issues have never been higher.
The following was published by Brevity and Clarity.
Rob Ferrett: Some of the organizations most opposed to the legalized sports game were sports organizations, such as the NFL and the MLB. Now, whoever looks at sport sees official partner game agencies. How did we get this switch to 180 degrees?
Jonathan D. Cohen: Yeah, we therefore obtained 180 slowly and then suddenly. As long as the sports game was illegal, the leagues could not approve it. And they have, in fact, spent many years, many decades, to strike the game and to talk about how much they don’t like the game, how much the game is a threat to the integrity of their game.
But then, here, at 10:01 am on May 14, 2018, they are still another institution that is capable of doing everything on the game. Because if the game will be legal, they can make money – they will make money – and they can use it to arouse the interest of their product.
RF: One of the arguments of legalization that you highlight over the years is: “People already play. The idea is: these legal things only take all these illegal affairs and transfer it. This has been the case, or have we seen the game develop because of this?
JDC: We have absolutely, without a doubt, given the games of chance develop – which means that there are many people, especially young people, who do not bet before 2018, who have only entered the game because it is so accessible, because they can bet in many states on their phone using a credit card or a debit card.
It was naive of politicians and it was a little surreptitious towards companies to claim that all this illegal money will automatically appear, by magic in legal chests without knowing why people really choose to play on the black market.
RF: When you think of sports betting, you think: “I’m going to bet on the football match”, right? This team will win, or this team will cover the spread, or the SUS, whatever the case. Now you can go online and bet on the 10th game of this tennis tournament in Hong Kong at 3 am.
JDC: And even more specifically, not just any sporting event in the world but also any fractional event of a sporting event. So, you watch the game Packers, and it is not only who will win the game, but as, will this reader end with a touchdown? Will the next game be a racing game? Will the next game be a racing game on more than 1.5 yards?
The idea behind all this is to create as many action possibilities as possible. They are not only trying to earn money – they are looking for chances of making money and things on which to bet and means of creating excitement.
By offering betting bets of double Malaysia for women, you give people in the middle of the night which have nothing else to look at, no sport, a chance to bet on something. And then you also encourage to bet on the game Packers, but to keep your Draft Cooks open and to continue to bet on the game, because any unique game, any time in the game, could be an opportunity to earn money or bet money.
It is so beyond what was imagined in 2018 when the Supreme Court decided on this question, and it is a new border in the American game.
RF: This takes us into the most heartbreaking parts of your book, which you call an “epidemic” of games of chance. You point out that most people who play will have no dependence, but there has been growth in game dependence since it happened. What do we see?
JDC: The data on this subject is a little uncertain, but there is a lot of anecdotal evidence that young people, especially young men, develop complete dependencies in the game or at least get involved in what you could call dangerous or problematic or at risk, where they periodically lose more money than they can afford, lose more money than they do.
(Some are) Develop this kind of dependence on the episodic games where you may not have a real dependence on the game in its own right for the rest of your life, but you go through a strange period of six months when you get out of the rabbit burrow and you say to yourself: “What just happened? How did I just lose $ 15,000 in six months?”
We note a lot of anecdotal evidence of those of secondary school teachers who contact me, game therapists, people who manage hotlines – all reporting not only an increase in their service and increased interest in therapy and treatment, but in particular a new demography that it is now: the youngest, once again, younger men in particular, who benefit from these services and game drops.
RF: And one of the greatest criticisms I have seen from Sportsbooks is the lack of effort to identify people who could be vulnerable to the problematic game because they are a really solid source of income for these companies. What type of guarantees are there?
JDC: For legal sports betting, you must prove that you are over 18 or that you are over 21 years old. Some states do not let you bet with credit cards. But the vast majority of these railings are optional. You can configure a deposit limit. You can configure a time limit on the application. Companies like it are optional, that it is you, the player, not this sporting book of $ 1 billion, to set you a limit and to define which responsible game.
This is why defenders like me and legislators have called to make some of these required railing. You know, if you put money on your account, you can’t play with him right away. You have to wait 24 hours or 12 hours so you can’t start hunting all your losses. Companies could do it themselves, and I would have liked them to do it, but it does not seem to be the case.
RF: How does the VIP system work on online betting sites?
JDC: These companies have more data on their players than any game operation in recorded human history. And they can understand who will bet, how much they will bet and who could (continue to bet) with small boost – with someone in their ear offering them tickets for a football game, a free iPhone, you call it, to encourage them to play more.
And you can imagine how much someone has to lose, how much money he has to play for a profitable business for businesses. This has been a long -standing practice in the casino industry, and it is now worse with sports betting because you can bet from your phone – you don’t have to be at the casino to lose money. You could do it a single minute of the day, betting on the double badminton of Malaysian women.
RF: You have mentioned the need for more guarantees for problems with problems and other changes in industry. Assuming that this will not come from the industry itself, which could create these guarantees?
JDC: According to the decision of the Supreme Court, each state regulates its own sports games, and there is a state regulation organization that could say: “OK, the new law in Wisconsin, or in Kansas or everywhere, is: you cannot play as much a day. You can only connect to your application this number of times ”, etc. States earn money in sports games and are often known to back up.
There is A bill in the congress This would do exactly what we have talked about, that is to say to define a floor under the sports game, which means: “OK, the states, you can offer sports games, but you must limit advertising in this way. You must spend so much money on the problematic game. You must prohibit the use of AI to develop accessories of specialized players to try to seduce players ”and so on.
It could therefore come from the state, it could come from the congress. I am a little skeptical that it will come from one or the other, but I hope.