Thursday begins March Madness, which means that millions of Americans will spend billions of dollars betting on the exploits of kids who may have just flunked their geology exam or had a fight with their girlfriend. Nothing I say in this space will ever make me sound more like an old get-off-my-lawn grouch than to rail against the evils of betting, but here goes.
Last year, about $2.2 billion was spent on the NCAA tournament, about twice as much as on the Super Bowl. More will be spent this year. Most of that money will have been bet via mobile phone on sports apps such as FanDuel and BetMGM, whose advertisements have probably driven you over the wall as they have me. And a majority of that betting will have come from college aged kids, mostly males.
The apps are slick. They offer up "free bets" and "easy wins" and suck the better in gradually. And there is a hidden cost in many cases. Researchers at UCLA determined that access to legal online sports betting led to lower credit scores and higher rates of bankruptcies. "Our results ultimately suggest that gambling legalization does harm consumer financial health." It feels like binge drinking; going on benders. They'll make bets and bets and bets and then wonder, "How the hell did I get here?"
It's not only college kids that are getting hurt. A person in law enforcement told me that if you read a story in the newspaper about a person who gets in trouble for embezzling funds from a youth organization or a soccer club or something, 90% of the time it's because that person got in over his or her head with gambling.
Yes, there are thousands of people who bet reasonably and who are in it "not for the money but for the fun." But that's how it begins. You start losing, you start chasing — sending good money after bad — and pretty soon, it's not for fun, it's for desperation. I once did a story on Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. The executive showing me around talked about all the friendly inducements he had for gamblers and how easy it is to win. But at one point, he waved his hand around the gorgeous facility and said slyly, "Of course, we didn't build all this with winners."
It's not just the individual gambler. I'm not sure it's clear to much of America how embed professional sports leagues are with gambling sites. Every league has a deal with a gambling app, and virtually every team in every league has a side deal, which enables the app to use official league data and league branding in sports book advertising. The Eagles, for example, have a deal with Caesar's Sports Book. The Sixers have deals with BetMGM and Betway. And the hypocrisy is mind boggling. The late Pete Rose was banned forever from the Hall of Fame for betting on baseball, but right now, Major League Baseball has an official deal with Draft Kings and FanDuel. Some ESPN commentators mention sports betting so much, they sound like they're running books themselves. I heard Chris Russo, the Mad Dog, interviewing Eagles tight end Dallas Goedert after the Super Bowl, and his first question to him was about Goedert not having five receptions in the game. "I had you as over on the 4.5 reception line," Russo said, "You cost me money." This is where we're at.
Look, I have nothing against casual betting. I myself run an Eagles pool in football season during which a participant may win as much as (gasp) 100 bucks. What I'm talking about is the complete overtaking of sports by the gambling industry that has turned fun into a nightmare for thousands and thousands of Americans young and old. March Madness will be March Sadness for lots of gamblers, and I'd be willing to bet on that.
