Well, I can’t omit Bill Maher’s 8-minute weekly comedy monologue, especially because this week it’s about betting. I’ve always called gambling, betting enterprises, and lotteries “taxes on the stupid”, because people who spend their money that way don’t seem to know that the expectation of money is far less than they’re spending. And it’s a regressive form of taxation, as the poor spend more than the rich, both absolutely and relatively. It’s just an easy way for governments to raise money. I don’t approve of government-funded gambling at all.
In this episode, a good one, Maher recounts the history of gaming in America, and although he opposes it, he also says it’s okay because he’s a libertarian. On the other hand, he argues that gambling is un-American because it puts fate rather than initiative in control of your life. (Maher clearly is not a determinist.) You’ll appreciate the picture of a young, entrepreneurial Maher at 6:56.
Did I ever gamble. Well, when I used to be in a place that had slot machines I’d put a quarter in one and that was it (I never won). One time I really did want to make a substantial bet was when I was in Scotland some years ago, and wanted to bet that the Queen Mother would live to be at least 100. My girlfriend wouldn’t let me go into the betting parlor, and in the end I would have won: she lived to be 101. I was betting on her genes.
The guests include former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada Chrystia Freeland.
I could be a libertarian and say, If people want to throw their money away, it’s their money. I am less encouraged, though, that behind them stand greedy politicians who are encouraging them in order to get the tax revenue. It used to be that sin taxes were to discourage vice. Now they are to raise revenue.
I gambled (sports betting) for three years and hated it. I did so to augment my meager entry level salary. I made money all three years and bumped up my income by 15%.
But I was lucky. I was schooled by professional gamblers, whose winning percentage was about 60 percent. I was also sickened when I saw a player at Caesars lose $10k in 30 minutes at the blackjack table. He did everything right…and still lost. As soon as I got a job that paid me enough to cover my bills, I quit gambling.
Bottom line, most gamblers are total losers. Last week I was in Palm Springs and was forced to walk through a casino full of poorly dressed, cigarette puffing slobs. I wouldn’t trust any of them to walk my dog.
Gambling is legal in our state, so there are a lot of glitzy commercials from private online gambling companies. They are all aimed at leveraging confirmation bias that you will win win win. I can expect it will have a substantial commercial presence during the Super Bowl.
Gambling is not one of my vices and I’m loathe to criticize the vices of others.
That said, like most drugs of addiction usage follows a power law, including that one. (using similar brain systems).
Like y/our liquor store whose business depends on the 10% of our population who are alcoholics, rather than normal drinkers… the “gaming” industry is supported almost entirely by problem gamblers, not PCC(E) or my few quarters if we’re in a casino (or bets on royal genes!).
And there’s so much “suggestive sell” and “push” tech devoted to sucking people in to sports betting – mainly young dudes of course. I’m sure we’d be upset if billboards and phone notifications were pushing heroin.
D.A.
NYC/CT
Many years ago, the Geological Society of America held its annual convention in Reno, Nevada. I didn’t spend a cent on gambling, and I hated even walking through the casinos because of the cigarette smoke, which seemed to pressurize the cavernous and noisy spaces. Yet in every hotel, one had to walk through casino to get to the hotel rooms. After the convention was over and the attendees had scattered to their respective haunts, I heard through the grapevine that the GSA would not be encouraged to visit Reno again. We didn’t spend enough money!
I heard the same story about “thousands of physicists”, but am unsure how true this is.
I’m cases of white-collar crime, it’s often the case that the small-town city clerk or the bookkeeper for the towing company or whatever turns out to be a compulsive gambler. Ergo, even in the unlikely event that you win big at the riverboat casino, a lot of that money is stolen.
This reminds me of one of my favorite poems (if anybody knows the source, please chime in!):
I once lost my tuition at Atlantic City*. I had to sell my motorcycle (a 1968 BSA, all chrome) to fund the spring semester. The only betting I’ve done since is to yell unseriously in response to something absurd; “wanna bet”?
*in my defense, I was 19 and we were there to celebrate my friend’s upcoming wedding (they’re still married!). It was a memorable weekend; one morning I woke up alone in the fog on a beach.
Gambling is the most vile form of making money. The seller does not even provide poison to the customer! Participating only encourages others, and some of them will of course be addicts who are hopelessly outsmarted by the addiction machines. The ideal situation would probably be a state monopoly where the players do not get ripped off too badly when betting on their sports games and the money goes towards something uncontroversial like national parks or children with cancer.
Privately owned casinos generally return 90% of their gross revenues to their customers in the form of winnings. State run lotteries generally return less than 50%
Statistical evidence is showing a marked increase in bankruptcies by gamblers, as well
as attendance at GA meetings. Mostly by young, inexperienced wagerers. Who could possibly have foreseen this?
I would also like to place much of the blame on the professional sports leagues. For decades, they fought tooth and nail against sports gambling contending that it would destroy the games’ integrity. All it took was getting a piece of the action from the online betting sites for all the leagues to do a total 180. Now, they are facing a dilemma of fixed games. Again, who possibly could have foreseen it?
In 1994, I was in Ohio visiting the relatives. My sister just spent money on lottery tickets. I gave her a big lecture about how gambling was a waste of money, how the lottery is the worst type of gambling (lowest amount of money returned to gamblers), etc.
The next day, I returned to Texas.
Y’all will never guess what happened three days later.
She won $50k.
I thought about it for awhile, then asked her how much money she spent weekly on the lottery. About $20 per week, or $1000 per year. I did a quick calculation, and determined that she would have been much better off if she had invested that amount in a No Load Standard and Poors Index Fund. Which is what I did.
In my sister’s defense, at least she didn’t blow the money. She used it on a down payment for a house, which she still lives in. Her boyfriend broke up with her, because he thought she should have spent to money on his career as a Heavy Metal guitarist LOLOLOL
So she won in the end. He might not have showed his hand if she had just accreted the money bit by bit from investing it, and be still with her all the while trying to get his hands on it.
He was an idiot. No one in our family liked him. My parents called him Bozo. He was never gainfully employed. Oh yeah, there was that time he called me a N***** Lover. I almost punched him in the face for that!
I confess to delight in betting on the horses. I’m curious about “gambling addiction,” and other addictions, and the physiological basis for addiction. There are articles suggesting weight-loss surgery can result in the craving for food being replaced by other addictions. What do biologists say?
Nota biologist..
I’ve read recently that eating ultra processed foods can be, lead, to addiction. It creates the need for more by whats in it.
A quote ” growing recognition that these sorts of highly processed foods are engineered to make us want more.”
Aimed at the brains reward systems and the abundance of availability of these types of foods. Here is the link if interested.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/ultraprocessed-foods-addictive?utm_medium=email&utm_term=N%2FA&utm_source=D365&utm_content=SN%20Latest%20Headlines%202025%2010%2009&utm_campaign=SN%20Latest%20Headlines%202025%2010%2009#msdynmkt_trackingcontext=f40743f9-2fb8-4406-a0ea-d4e592a60200
My dad gambled, poorly, especially poker. He also “liked the ponies” as they say. When I was a kid he took me to Santa Anita, Hollywood Park, and Los Alamitos race tracks. Betting on a horse, i.e. having a rooting interest, does increase the fun of a day at the track, even if you just bet $2. So long as you treat it as paying for entertainment, not trying to pay your rent, it’s good clean fun. Recently, I took my wife who’d never been to a track, to Santa Anita. She bet the favorite 9 times in a row, winning every bet. Her joy was worth the trip. I didn’t have the heart to tell her she won no money. Gambling is fun, so long as you can afford to lose and find joy in the activity. The moment you start playing “because you need the money”, you’ve already lost.
I am commenting on why Lawrence Kraus, Steve Pinker, Michael Shermer, and Richard Dawkins apparently all do not stand up to any kind of scrutiny in their nefarious dealings with Jeffrey Epstein. Of course, one must wait for the dust to settle here, but why does it look so bad in terms of hypocrisy for these once eminent men?
This comment is irrelevant to the topic; you apparently just want to diss those guys. For example, what nefarious dealings did any of them, like Dawkins, even HAVE with Epstein? I think you came to the wrong website.
Thanks for stopping by; see you again–never