The devil on your shoulder – Ben Petteruti
While sports gambling may seem sinister, one must acknowledge the positives that it has brought onto the sports scene. Tasked with a challenging point to defend, I will be pushing a very simple agenda — keep gambling.
One of the biggest impacts of betting becoming normalized in the sports landscape is that it grows the sport — and the more popular that sport is, the larger the customer base for gambling. Take football and baseball for example, where viewership has increased every year since legalized gambling became part of the game. People who may not have been able to sit through a game before or who may not have been interested at all now have a reason to tune in. With more people attending games and watching at home, betting simply gives fans something to do.
It’s no secret that the average sports viewer’s attention span has taken a nosedive. Take baseball, for example, a sport which people have endlessly complained about being boring, even despite recent rule changes to shorten the game and make it more action-packed. If one can’t even sit in silence over a meal without looking at their phone, how can there be an expectation to sit through an inning of baseball without placing a bet?
Betting can be the ultimate method of fan involvement, be it choosing between individual player prop bets, betting on the game’s final score, or even betting on what color socks the home team’s manager will wear. There is a huge existing range of what fans can bet on.
For better or worse, especially with an issue like gambling, all you have to do is follow the money. It’s clear to see that the industry has been gaining steam and shows no sign of slowing. In 2023 alone, the sports gambling industry bagged a record $10.92 billion in revenue, a whopping 44.5% year-over-year increase from 2022. Sports gambling has also been a huge source of state tax revenue, as legislation has continued to bend the knee to these companies. It is more so a matter of whether it is legal or not, and therefore the money can go towards things like generating tax revenue. When also considering the revenue that institutions like the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL make from airing sports betting advertisements on TV, the money is being made hand over fist.
Gambling, be it in sports or otherwise, has always been prevalent. Dedicated gamblers will always find a way to get their chips in. While legalized gambling has expanded this group, the societal urge has always been there. Now that the floodgates have been opened, people are eager to do what they’ve always wanted to — keep gambling.
Contact Ben Petteruti at petteruti@oxy.edu
The angel on your shoulder – Mac Ribner
Sports betting is no longer the niche market that it once was. With the advent of the internet, all it takes is a few clicks to immerse oneself in a world of high-stakes sports gambling. This convenience, coupled with the increasingly laissez-faire approaches of state governments on the matter, has turned sports gambling into a goliath. I am of the opinion that sports betting is ruining sports as we know them.
In January 2023, sports betting was legalized in my home state of Massachusetts. Betting companies, no doubt aware of the zealous nature of Boston sports fans, came pouring into the city almost immediately. The next time I was in Boston, I was bombarded with Draftkings advertisements featuring the faces of Boston icons — David Ortiz, Zdeno Chara and even Lenny Clarke — encouraging me to “bet local” with a sportsbook that had its roots in Boston.
It felt like sports gambling had engulfed the city. News tickers in bars were replaced with odds for basketball games. Fenway Park’s raffles were now sponsored by DraftKings. Even local sports radio hosts were getting in on the action, sponsoring absurd 10-leg parlays that they swore would hit. Sports betting had wormed its way into the very fabric of Boston, and the city was merely along for the ride.
These days, watching the big game on TV has transformed from a fun pastime into a grotesque math problem. Gone are the days of people simply rooting for their team to win. Now, it’s only satisfying if specific, often absurd statistics are met. Look up “sports betting rage” videos on YouTube, and you’re bound to find compilations of 18-year-olds with the temperament of longtime degenerate gamblers flying into a frenzy over statistics that would be considered utterly insane 10 years ago.
This gambling frenzy has completely altered sports watching for the worse. And thanks to insidious partnerships between sports betting companies and the leagues themselves, it’s become impossible to avoid the plague of gambling-related content in sports. These partnerships are undoubtedly beneficial for the leagues in question, but is it truly good for the sports themselves?
When sports networks are constantly pushing betting lines during games, it makes the average viewer feel as though they must bet in order to complete their experience. Betting on games no longer feels like a choice for the avid fan, but rather a necessity. Even I capitulated to the sports-betting colossus last year when I bet on basketball games in an ill-fated attempt to make a quick buck. When my bets flopped but my favorite team won, I still felt as though I had ultimately lost. Such is the dire state of being a sports fan in the age of gambling.
In my eyes, the central philosophy of nationalized team sports is to draw a connection between people and the setting that surrounds them. Regardless of background, identity or personal beliefs, fans can be united around the central concept of team pride. With the advent of sports betting, it feels like no one is on the same team anymore. In this new era, people are only looking out for their wallets, and the values of old are drifting away.
Contact Mac Ribner at ribner@oxy.edu
you’re never more than a few parleys between poverty and a life of opulence— very beautiful, if you think about it. to me, the sports experience will *always* be centered on gambling. god bless the heroes who show up every day and trust lady luck to take the wheel
Gambling is something that has terrible consequences for those unlucky enough to become addicted to it. Even casual gambling can put an extreme strain on people and their relationships, families, pocketbooks, etc. I think it’s absolutely despicable that the sports industry has promoted gambling on such a large, ubiquitous level, while barely addressing its harms. But hey, anything for money, right? Nobody should be surprised that the massive machine of major sports leagues is willing to throw as many people in the meat grinder as possible if it means more $$$. I get the allure (and I enjoy a casual game of poker, myself) but what the NFL and MLB have done to promote sports gambling should be a permanent stain on their reputations. I’m with Mac.