Bloomberg: Odds are sports betting will bring trouble.
If you don't mind, take a minute before reading my response to read the article above.
Done?
Good, let's get started.
But, where to begin?
How about as his beginning, recapping the great betting scandals of the past. While all of them were pretty big scandals it's important to note one key point: In almost all of the cases the fraud was initially sniffed-out by the legalized sports books themselves. THEY presented the information to the authorities, worried about odd action on their boards.
Off-shore, gray-area sports books would, rightly, not do this, for fear of prosecution. Two wrongs do not make a right and what-not. But to act as if off-shore, illegal (in the United States) gambling is not happening is akin to pretending the Sun is not shining because you're in a room with blackout curtains and cannot see it.
The simple fact is, when it comes to uncovering fraud, better odds are with legalized, rather than off-shore books. History has shown this to be true many times over.
His second big point is about problem gamblers. And, he's right. Problem gaming is going to need to be something that the United States and the gambling industry are going to have to get a handle on quickly. They need to get ahead of the game.
Not surprisingly, the governments are not doing much to address it, other than some flowery words about "caring for the player" and what-not. The people actually doing the work are in the Industry.
Take, for example, the American Gaming Association and their page on responsible gaming. While I do feel that we're lagging behind on how to handle this, I was glad to see them mention a National Hotline for problem gambling, rather than the pock-marked system of State hotlines we have today.
It should go much further. An Opt-out request to the National system should be transmittable and transferable to all jurisdictions Nationwide. It should be a 1-800 number with qualified counselors on-call 24-7.
Casinos need to do more as well. They current track play, and they can see when someone is repeatedly hitting up the ATM. They can back you off if they believe you are an advantage player, why can they not do the same when they suspect you are on Tilt? Probably not a permanent ban in this case, but a temporary pause. Possibly if you get too many hits on the pause button then something longer term is considered. But, and this is important, don't just make the "When the fun stops" pamphlets available, actively distribute them to a player you put on pause.
It's not often necessary to ban someone who is having a tough go. I've been there, on trips where nothing is happening and you just keep digging. Granted, I've never been so down that rabbit hole that I've taken funds needed for living, but I have lost my entire gaming budget for a trip. If you were watching me I was NOT having fun.
Today I know to take a pause, to just stop gambling for a while. I go for a walk or go back to the room and do some Yoga, I do anything but continue to pump money into those blasted video poker machines for a bit.
But, not all people do this, and alcohol is especially a retardant to doing so. I've been in casinos around the country who have let people continue to gamble despite the fact that they could barely put together a coherent sentence. Maybe pushing the pause button on them is a good idea?
There's a LOT more that goes into it, and a lot more that could be done, but arguing that liberalizing the gaming rules in States is going to lead to increased problems isn't necessarily true. The hard fact is, anyone who WANTS to gamble in the United States CAN gamble here. Either legally or illegally online or through a bookie or underground casino/game room. Those illegal options come with little to no security, player advocates or gaming commissions to make rules. They also come with no player protections or limits.
Tell me how that would be better?
We've seen that prohibition does not work, yet we continue to call for more prohibition on things we think might be risky with which we disagree.
Let's do better on this than let the media paint a false picture of what's really going on.
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