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The word is 'lose', not 'spend'.
And 'addiction', not 'favourite pastime'.
yeah, they would be better advised to throw their money into the garbage, at least that way they wouldn't make some rich asshole even richer.
Nice try big garbage industry man
No, spend is right. The number being compared against is the amount spent on gambling. Obviously some of those bets won, so the amount lost would be far less.
All fair points. I just object to people breathlessly putting out stories like this as if it's a good thing and anything other than gambling at best, and insider trading at worst. The only people winning on those sites are the people with inside information.
(edit: fixed typos)
Most gambling winnings go right back into gambling and are subsequently lost.
I would be surprised if it was “far less” although mathematically it must be strictly less.
In other words, the average American adult placed roughly $1,000 in legal bets on sports last year. Handle is gross throughput, not consumer expenditure: over 90% of what is wagered gets returned to bettors in the form of winnings. That $1,000 in bets translates to roughly $100 in average losses per adult.
But it does point out the vast majority of the losses are absorbed by 5% of gamblers.
Say I started with $100 and made a bet but only won 90 back. Then the next day I do it again with my 90, but only win 80 this time. Repeat this until I have $10 left, I bet that and lose it.
By your logic, I’ve lost $550, since thats the amount of money I’ve bet over the week and a half. In reality, any sane person would say I’ve lost $100.
This is a very American thing.
Measuring popularity in terms of money spent.
By this metric, spending time with loved ones or going for a short walk has zero popularity.
Spoiler: This is how GDP works too. Didn't make any money? It's not considered real work. EVERYTHING in the US serves capital - not people.
I think it's relevant when comparing to other popular entertainment like going to the movies which is another big capitalist institution.
Not really. The time to money ratio is so different for all of them and there's no way to compare.
I spend $20 and go to the movies and that's it. I'm there for 2 hours no more money spent.
I spend $20 on sports betting and ten minutes later I can do it again and ten minutes later I can do it again and again and again. I know people who drop hundreds every weekend on it. I literally can not spend enough time in a theater to drop the same amount of money.
Well that's a different question, which one is more dangerous to personal finance or something like that, but in terms of macro economics what matters is dollars spent. Depends what question you're trying to ask, yes I think corporations should be categorically banned from touching anything relating to gambling because as you alluded to, it's one of the most destructive "recreational" activities.
Sign of a real healthy society, that.
Yup. More people are desperate and are trying for a chance to “win it big” and get out of the situation they’re in. Whereas art, museums, etc. doesn’t help an immediate living situation and gets deprioritized
Elysium
I hate this country more every day
What a deranged headline.
Its comparison is nonsensical.
No sane person gambles for entertaining purposes.
People gamble because they are addicts or in need of money.
The sports gambling apps will be the number one cause of divorce in the US one day. The sheer number of married men betting on them..
Who isn't in need of money? Isn't that the overwhelming majority of people?
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The amount of money spent doesn't really accurately represent how much a past time is "liked", since money (obviously) isn't distributed evenly. A more useful metric would be how much time people spend doing this in comparison to the other options, which is impossible to measure. Also in theory it could be literally 1 or 2 people doing the gambling if they have enough money, while everyone else goes to museums and listens to music.
It's even more true with the other options not being exactly expensive (in particular museums, but the other options are will). Try spending 50k $ gambling: no problem. Try spending 1k $ going to museums: you'll be busy for 2 years or something.
Basically the whole premise is just dumb.
Yeah in part that is because it isn't a pastime it's a full blown life crippling addiction for a lot of people.
The language they use in this article pisses me off too.
This shit isn't healthy and talking about it like it is a healthy behavior is very irresponsible on the part of the media.
Anything but vote for somebody to tax wealth instead of work.
Who can I vote for that would actually do that?
Depends which country you're in. UK: Greens, France: LFI, US: independents, Italy: Partito Democratico, ...
There's no hope for this place. May our children forgive us.
Kinda hope they don’t. The US was equipped with plenty of ways, even through the propaganda, to dodge the evil bullshit and the country just keeps barrelling towards hell. And here in Canada we’re doing the same thing, arguably worse because the US is RIGHT THERE and we’re like “nah, I’m not going to learn from those mistakes actually.”
Canada and the US do not deserve forgiveness. May our children survive us, and may they have the strength to hate all the conservatives, “centrists”, and politically ignorant people who sold their lives to a handful of the most stupid, greedy, and dweeby fucks the human race has ever produced.
Well... you don't get money back from movies, arts, museums, or music, but there is a miniscule chance you could from gambling.
With the economy the way it is, it's more likely people are just desperate. And some are definitely addicted, of course.
Americans love the surprising new hobby of shooting up fentanyl, spending more on it than food or housing!
Gambling always goes up as the economy gets worse for the average worker.
I don't gamble but at that same time, I can't pirate gambling.
You could though. You could run a knockoff gambling site that doesn’t actually cost (or give) you any money.
The irony of gambling is that it’s the opposite of other media; the addictive part is paying for it.
Gambling should be banned. And not just the prediction markets and sports-book, but the lottery too.
It's just theft with extra steps.
Don't forget the stock market.
I call lottery the math tax
Yea it’s one of the few things I’m like nope, should be illegal fully don’t give a fuck.
To make everyone feel even more awful, the "commercials before the movie" will probably start to have "financial engagement opportunities" as the theater houses look to try to stay alive. Pro sports venues will make it more "in your face" and offer discounts on food if you are wagering or better seats or free game tickets or some shit. Books, well most Americans don't read as adults so I think that'll continue it's current state at least. Live theater could wager on what color Hamlet's scene two entrance clothes will be....at the end of the day they'll probably hop on for survival since many of their patrons or past donors are similarly disengaging.
Currently most are doing 50/50 raffles, but it's still gambling.
healthy society, good economy
"So long as they (the Proles) continued to work and breed, their other activities were without importance. Left to themselves, like cattle turned loose upon the plains of Argentina, they had reverted to a style of life that appeared to be natural to them, a sort of ancestral pattern...Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbors, films, football, beer and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult."
George Orwell, 1984
I had figured it would, once gambling regulations were bypassed, and no-one recognized that gambling houses make for a moral hazard.
For a long time the US economy has depended on companies exploiting human cognitive biases and addictive mechanisms, from selling booze to bank service fees, to click-wrapped ToS agreements, and yes, to gambling.
There's a reason we regulated it, much the way we regulate advertising so that it's not deceptive.
One beef is the slop of fear and rage that is used to sell far right news media. FOX News even encourages its viewership to abandon all over news sources, like an abusive domestic partner.
If we don't figure out a way out of it, so that confidence ploys and cognitive manipulation for profit are once again regarded as foul play and business in bad faith, then we're just going to be owned by the ownership class. Literally.
But they're not very smart, so they'll not do a thing to address the climate crisis.
I can hear Ronnie Chieng and Michael Kosta: "Brought to you by Gambling. Gambling! The fun way to sell your house!"
Join me at the table if you'd like to place a bet
All the cash that's filling your pockets is waiting to be spent
I know you've never played but drinks are free, its so bizarre
And even if you lose a few chips, it's cheaper than the bar
Bread and games...
We dumb.
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this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2026
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