Board 8 > Sports betting needs to stop.

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://twitter.com/betonline_ag/status/1669794023165558784?s=20

Beyond this, I'm tired of the betting odds being shoved down my throat during every broadcast. If people wish to engage in it, I'm all for it. But please stop making me be forced to.

it's obviously a cultural thing where you're super averse to gambling in the US to where offering odds on the Special Olympics is seen as controversial... here I mean, I can gamble on what's going to happen on TV shows, I was stunned to learn you *couldn't* bet on special olympics. It's like saying... don't tell the athletes, but we don't really consider this competition. But I think if you already are strongly averse to gambling, this comes off worse. That's how I read it anyway

Steiner posted...

it's obviously a cultural thing where you're super averse to gambling in the US to where offering odds on the Special Olympics is seen as controversial... here I mean, I can gamble on what's going to happen on TV shows, I was stunned to learn you *couldn't* bet on special olympics. It's like saying... don't tell the athletes, but we don't really consider this competition. But I think if you already are strongly averse to gambling, this comes off worse. That's how I read it anyway

An interesting perspective that I appreciate. It is definitely a relatively recent occurrence where sports betting had been so pervasive in American sports.

Yeah, it wasn't really until the courts started allowing more it more widely in the past few years that it exploded as part of sports coverage here. Before it would be playfully hinted at here and there but now it's nearly front and center.

Thorn posted...

Yeah, it wasn't really until the courts started allowing more it more widely in the past few years that it exploded as part of sports coverage here. Before it would be playfully hinted at here and there but now it's nearly front and center.

"A meaningful score for some"

"Run the cover play!"

It's very oppressive. I get ads for sites like fanduel constantly, across every medium you can think of. I honestly don't know how there are so many people interested in all these ridiculous bets to merit this degree of in-your-face-ness. It would be one thing if it were just whales propping it up, but they certainly don't make it seem that way. It's also predatory.

When it was considered illegal to so much as place a casual bet on who wins a game, I thought that was a little extreme, however at this point it's swung WAAYYY too far in the other direction. I feel like the gambling community thinks the world is now The Hunger Games, and we're citizens in the capital, eager to turn any curiosity into a spectacle. Gamble on sports, gamble on politics, gamble on whether or not I sneeze in the next five minutes. They should gamble on whether people will get annoyed at them sending you another ad in the mail.

Re: Special Olympics -- that's taking it a bit too far. Turn professional, paid athletes into a spectacle, fine, but a bunch of dudes with Down Syndrome trying to compete in athletics? That's just indecent. Maybe they'll never know, but the people in their orbit will.

honestly i don't find gambling advertising any more grating than the endless other advertisements we get during sports

They advertise alcohol and prescription drugs

Not getting upset by gambling

masterplum posted...

They advertise alcohol and prescription drugs

Not getting upset by gambling

Most of the world bans prescription drug advertisements. Alcohol advertisements are also usually heavily regulated. The world is not America. Ironically this is actually an area America was actually better on than many places until recently. I am fine with betting but the advertising needs effectively a full ban.

Couldn't give a shit about whether people gamble and I'd even take it a step further and state I also don't give a shit about sports people gambling either unless it's against their own team. I personally don't gamble but have done in the past (more so when I lived in England)

And the whole 'inside information' part that sports people aren't allowed to share for gambling purposes is also bullshit. The bookmakers always have inside information and don't share it with the public even before the odds being structured in a way to protect them. So they shouldn't get any extra layers of protection by sports being not being allowed to hand out info.

The fact that this is the premise for a Johnny Knoxville movie is the part thats killing me.

"Betting on the Special Olympics" being an absurdly amoral thing to do is like...the premise of the movie

I do agree that the way certain spreads and parlays are mentioned on the broadcasts are very elementary but otherwise, what's the difference between that and some annoying ad from Statefarm. They're going to be sponsored by somebody.

>"Betting on the Special Olympics" being an absurdly amoral thing to do is like...the premise of the movie

This is a silly premise. If anything, it's offensive to suggest this. So they're not worthy of being bet on? If we're supposed to take the special olympics seriously as a real sport (and we are) then it only makes sense that it gets all the aspects of being a real sport, including having half-crazy degenerates bet on you.

It's super annoying and it would be nice if it could go back to being something that wasn't advertised.

I dunno my thoughts on the Special Olympics thing is that it's supposed to be a celebration of the athletes ability to overcome a stacked deck against them rather than the sport itself. I'm sure the actual performance matters to the athlete, but the results of the event don't feel like the main takeaway. It allows us to look at sports as a more pure entity. Adding gambling just feels like we're souring the positives that sports can bring.

Maybe this could be construed as belittling, but I'm just trying to look at it through a lens of "wow at the end of the day sports is a great motivator to preserve through the hardships of life" or something.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/3/9/AAb9RHAAEllr.jpg

ZaziGuado posted...

I dunno my thoughts on the Special Olympics thing is that it's supposed to be a celebration of the athletes ability to overcome a stacked deck against them rather than the sport itself. I'm sure the actual performance matters to the athlete, but the results of the event don't feel like the main takeaway. It allows us to look at sports as a more pure entity. Adding gambling just feels like we're souring the positives that sports can bring.

Maybe this could be construed as belittling

yeah hard disagree, this seems 100% like belittling their achievements

Gambling ads need to be treated like smoking ads. That includes lotteries, etc.

It's fine that you make them available but don't encourage people to do it.

In USA, sports betting won't be going away, since tax revenue can be collected from all of the money coming in. It's that simple.

I got so sick of those damn Fancy Like Applebees commercials, but I wouldn't say get rid of Applebees. Okay, maybe I would. But I'd only be half-serious.

Commercials are annoying period, but they fund the entertainment we like to watch. It's the price we all pay. Just don't pay attention to the commercials tbh.

Hotel_Security posted...

If anything, it's offensive to suggest this. So they're not worthy of being bet on? If we're supposed to take the special olympics seriously as a real sport (and we are) then it only makes sense that it gets all the aspects of being a real sport, including having half-crazy degenerates bet on you.

As someone who doesn't do (or care about) betting, this is my take as well.

If sports betting is legal (which it is) then all sports can be bet on, like it or not. If you don't like it, then you should be opposed to betting as a concept (which many people are, and there's a completely valid and normal stance to have). But I don't think you can pick and choose which things should be legal to bet on. It's all or none in this case.

As far as gambling goes, sports betting does seem the most innocuous. Sure all gambling is going to ruin your life if you have an addiction or if you're gambling more than you can afford to lose but sports betting is way better than internet slots or going to a casino imo.

Ashethan posted...

I got so sick of those damn Fancy Like Applebees commercials, but I wouldn't say get rid of Applebees. Okay, maybe I would. But I'd only be half-serious.

Commercials are annoying period, but they fund the entertainment we like to watch. It's the price we all pay. Just don't pay attention to the commercials tbh.

I advocate for full Applebees erasure, but not for anything related to commercials.

I have no problem with sports betting itself, only the deluge of ads being pushed through radio and television.

Ashethan posted...

I got so sick of those damn Fancy Like Applebees commercials, but I wouldn't say get rid of Applebees. Okay, maybe I would. But I'd only be half-serious.

Commercials are annoying period, but they fund the entertainment we like to watch. It's the price we all pay. Just don't pay attention to the commercials tbh.

This would be a fine argument if the only times I were exposed to Fanduel and Draftkings was during the ad breaks and not during the segments themselves, in my snail mail, in my e-mail, on youtube, and anywhere else on the internet when I'm not using an adblocker. Before long, I expect there to be people going door-to-door like the two ladies who came by yesterday to get me to attend a Jehovah's Witness event.

And the worst part is that I don't know anyone IRL who gambles, nor do I have any idea why they have my information.

Hotel_Security posted...

I do agree that the way certain spreads and parlays are mentioned on the broadcasts are very elementary but otherwise, what's the difference between that and some annoying ad from Statefarm. They're going to be sponsored by somebody.

>"Betting on the Special Olympics" being an absurdly amoral thing to do is like...the premise of the movie

This is a silly premise. If anything, it's offensive to suggest this. So they're not worthy of being bet on? If we're supposed to take the special olympics seriously as a real sport (and we are) then it only makes sense that it gets all the aspects of being a real sport, including having half-crazy degenerates bet on you.

I dunno take it up with Johnny Knoxville in 2005

Advertisements for gambling should be banned from sporting events/broadcasts if nothing else.