The problem with expressing concerns about legalized sports betting is that you’re guaranteed to be dismissed as some pious, pearl-clutching, speech-making, out-of-touch crank.
But that’s me on a good day, so what the heck and here goes: I’m uncomfortable with legalized sports betting.
I also recognize it’s here to stay. If you tell me you turned some of your wages into wagers on last week’s Dodgers-Giants series, I say to you: Fine. The games were played at Dodger Stadium in 2024, not Ebbets Field in 1954, the latter being a place and a time when gambling was prevalent, if shadowy. It was also a place and a time when play-by-play barkers Red Barber and Vin Scully were up there in the booth plugging Schaefer beer, not FanDuel. That was all a long, long time ago. This is today. And you and I are citizens of today. (Disclosure: BetMGM is the exclusive sports betting partner of The Athletic.)
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But the beer/gambling analogy makes for a good jumping-off point for where I intend to go with this. Beer was legal then and it’s legal now. Same with stiffer forms of alcohol. But there’s an expectation these days that we be prudent when we indulge, even if the TV ads are generally casual with making that point, if they bother to do so at all.
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And yet sometimes the beer companies pleasantly surprise us, as the Budweiser people did a few years back with the commercial showing a young man heading out with his buddies for the night, leaving his dog at home. The night grows dark, and we see a series of shots of the poor dog, lonely, worried. And we, the viewers, now become worried as well, leaning a little closer to the TV and fearing something has gone horribly wrong. The spot feeds this fear by fading to a somber message displayed over a black background: “For some, the waiting never ended.”
Happily, the sun comes up, the door opens and the young man is there to hug his dog, explaining in so many words that he had a few too many last night and decided to crash at his friend’s place. The spot works because it’s as though the message is being delivered not at you but to you — just you. It isn’t weighted down by a very serious voiceover artist warning you not to drink and drive. There’s no fine print at the bottom of the screen to fulfill some sort of government-decreed edict. They show you a dude and a dog, and then they plant that seed about a horrible car crash. But there is no horrible car crash. Responsibility and maturity take over, and the spot ends with the young man hugging his dog. “I’m back,” he says. “I’m back.” And then he says it once more time. “I’m back.”
It’s brilliant. And it’s precisely the kind of message that needs to be delivered to sports bettors. That’s not happening, of course. Instead, it’s all glitz and glamour. It’s Tom Brady and Vince Vaughn. It’s “Bet $5, get $150” and the “New Player Offer $100% Deposit Match.” Yes, the spots have the little warnings at the bottom of the screen, including: “Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler.” While I’m sure lots of people have called the number as a starting point to getting help for their gambling addiction, it strikes me as nothing more than the government-mandated warning on a pack of cigarettes.
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Common sense tells us the ads are being directed at the younger demographic. Betting on sports is being marketed as cool, fun, sexy. I’m sure there’s also some FOMO going on: You know your buddies are betting on the games, so you pick up your phone and start betting on the games.
Yes, the problem is bigger than all that. We should worry as well about the athletes getting caught up on the tawdry side of sports betting. We should also worry about athletes suffering the wrath of angry fans. According to The Athletic’s David Aldridge, “… at least one (NBA) team has added an extra security guard to its bench this season, in response to increased gambling-infused belligerence. Another team has beefed up its cybersecurity staff, to detect especially odious vitriol sent by fans to its players online.”
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And then there’s the hypocrisy of professional sports leagues partnering with sports betting companies while posting all kinds of rules and regulations designed to keep their current athletes from jumping into the pool.
“If the integrity of the game were truly paramount,” writes The Athletic’s Jim Trotter, “gambling and any association with it would be banned. Period. There would not be workarounds that permit players to bet on any sport but their own. Don’t like it? Find another line of work. But instead of constructing virtual barriers to protect the game, sports leagues continue to open their doors and arms.”
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These are valid concerns. But I’m less worried about athletes getting booed and leagues leaving their integrity at the door than I am about an entire generation of sports fans being swallowed up by gambling. It’s something that merits a continuing dialogue — at home, at school, in the media. It’d be nice if we had a tearjerker commercial that could teach this lesson using a dude, his dog and a night out with friends, but that would be naive. (Who came up with that Budweiser commercial? Please drop me a line. Perhaps we can work on something that uses the simplicity and sentimental touch of that old beer commercial to address a modern-day problem.)
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The worry isn’t that the newbie sports bettors are going into hock. The worry is that they’re never going to stash anything for the future. Or perhaps that’s the point, with millennials and Gen Zers choosing to prioritize other things rather than hop on the increasingly complicated saving-for-a-house treadmill.
If it’s a philosophical thing, then stop reading and carry on. But if it’s not philosophical — that is, if you’re getting caught up in sports betting — there’s an ancient (as in very Baby Boomerish) savings practice that may help you out. It’s called the principle of paying yourself, wherein you dedicate a portion of each month’s earnings to some form of savings, be it a 401(k), an index fund or some other long-term investment. The concept is that you pay yourself with the same consistency with which you pay your rent, utilities, car loan and so on. Next, you figure out how much you spend each month on entertainment — eating out, movies, clubs, trips, etc. And then you strike a bargain with yourself: You can only bet money on sports that comes out of your entertainment allotment. The rest is off-limits.
I admit this is all rather quaint and naive. But the way I figure it, the crowd that lives for the action and thrill of sports betting tuned me out seven paragraphs ago.
If you’re still reading, this is for you.
(Photo of former NFL tight end Rob Gronkowski promoting the FanDuel Kick of Destiny before the 2023 Super Bowl: Cheryl Evans / USA Today)