It's really rich of DraftKings and FanDuel to insist on people gambling "responsibly" when they bombard users with notifications about betting opportunities and even assign people to specific customers to target them and convince them to keep going. The NFL's partnership with and promotion of these sportsbooks also shouldn't be diminished. They are essentially serving up vulnerable individuals to these companies in the interest of profit. It's predatory behavior, pure and simple.
So terribly predatory. I’ve never found gambling appealing at all, but I know that one of my grandparents had their lives ruined because of this addiction. It’s awful that huge businesses are being built around exploiting this.
I could have sent the exact same email that you did. (A grandfather who was no longer alive when I was born despite his jovial attractive personality, ruined and jeopardized his and other's lives. How sad for his wife, the grandmother I never knew, who apparently adored him despite this addiction--a woman whose family started a university in Ireland.)
My grandfather lost my grandmother's life savings at the horse races thanks to his gambling addiction. And now, as you wrote, "...huge businesses are being built around exploiting this."
All of this strikes me more as a criminal enterprise than a big business. The thing is, the laws these days aren't written to protect the weak and vulnerable. They're written by the rich and powerful to further enrich and empower themselves.
What we've got here is another fine example of the old adage, "The love of money is the root of all evil".
Yes. It is truly frightening.We should just be saying no. No good can come out of this. Americans allow so many toxic things to exist. This should be shut down now.
Do the world a favor. Shut them down. Take away their money with lawsuits like this. What I hate as much as anything is our government being involved in gambling. No excuse for it.
States are hooked on this drug gambling- it provides them with revenue. In Illinois, you should see how many slot machines there are- probably an even worse gambling option.
I'll bet these gambling scam artists declined to respond. When I see pop-up ads during the games, it sets me off. I said very early that this kind of instant betting would seed this kind of addiction, and families would be damaged.
Now, I'm going to add what I said about this a while back: This convenient form of betting will ultimately destroy sports, and the result will be permanent damage, because once trust in the games is lost, we can never get it back.
This form of gambling breeds an atmosphere for game fixing, and the potential for corruption is only limited by the ethics of the gambling establishment, a bunch of thieves that have very little empathy or ethics. If you believe that this is just entertainment, you're a fool. This could even eventually empty the stands, and then where would we be? Nowhere good.
I know what you mean about junk in the attic. "Say it ain't so, Joe. Say it ain't so" was supposedly what a kid who was a big fan of Shoeless Joe Jackson said when Jackson was accused of taking a bribe to throw the World Series in 1919. It was a scandal that left a lasting stain on baseball. Your comment reminded me of it. I agree with you that there's a monster lurking beneath the thin veneer of "entertainment" that will destroy sports if it isn't caged.
Yeah, what amazes me is that not enough people have yet to realize the damage that lurks within this unlimited gambling. It’ll come out eventually. I hope it’s not too late.
Who hasn’t seen addiction wreck someone’s life? I have seen it too many times- alcohol, tobacco, gambling and other risky behaviors that ultimately killed persons I loved. And the damage to their families is unforgivable. And yet the institutionalization of addictive behaviors to legally turn a profit continues. Most states have lotteries taking money from those who can afford it the least. Alcohol and tobacco remain legal even though they ultimately kill. And now the fall out of the last decade of this experiment into legalized algorithmic sports betting and event betting like Polymarket. Bread and circuses. It’s all bread and circuses while the empire collapses. The level of manipulation of the masses, now with AI, by the few who make their money on their addictions never ends.
Another Robert's Court disaster ruling. The House always wins, unless it's a trump casino where the house goes bankrupt... The NFL is now more gambling enterprise than a sports league. I wonder how many unforced fumbles or deliberately dropped passes scored some big gains for the gambling hoards, and how much NFL insiders won in the betting parlors of their phones as they sat in their taxpayer funded stadium executive suites..
The “House” was laundering money for Russian Oligarchs… and trump was probably using his casinos as his personal piggy bank. Probably not a coincidence his CFO & other casino executives died in that helicopter crash.
Social media, specifically Twitter/X, is complicit in this.
I don’t have a gambling problem: I have never placed a sports bet. But I disapprove of the industry.
Every time an ad pops up for a sports book or casino I block it, but it doesn’t help. More likely than not the next ad will be for another one. Twitter tells me I can change my ad preference, but no where I can find allows me to block the entire industry.
Imagine if I were a problem gambler. I would be inundated with constant ads. They should be held liable.
Glad you wrote this piece - desperately needed, just like a gag is, on these so-called sports betting ripoffs! The ads are everywhere - on my phone, on TV. I've even begun to think I'm hooked on some online games that make me want to keep playing, even when I need to purcha$e more to continue. I can see why/where people are addicted. But if these moneysucking betting apps were better regulated, maybe young men with families, mortgages, responsibilities would learn this is a losing game! I do blame these guys - it's always MEN - who become addicted to gambling, but I can see where/how it becomes such a part of their lives that they throw away everything to make the next losing bet.
When the US began legalizing betting outside of casinos, it was only a matter of time before compulsive gambling became a nationwide epidemic. Sadly, the billions in profits are too much for the NFL and other professional leagues to ignore.
I’m sure I’m not the only one disgusted by every other ad being DraftKings or Fan Duel. The VIP Consigliere are a particularly malevolent “service” these vultures employ. It’s telling that they kick out successful gamblers from these VIP services. It’s the “coolers” of the digital age.
One more rant: The comment section of any sports story online is inundated with gamblers bragging or moaning…🤦🏻♂️
I enjoy watching NFL football and MLB baseball games, but the betting ads are relentless. I have no desire to place a bet, buy a luxury car, overspend on dining, travel, or expensive new pharmaceuticals to treat complaints I didn’t even know existed…so all the ads are wasted on me. But for some people, the pressure to conform is too strong. Isn’t the allure of wealth and success that’s out of reach the origin of gambling addiction? The desperate need to “score big”? Maybe not. Maybe it’s the unrealistic belief you are smarter than the “losers” and have to prove it constantly, mathematics be damned. Either way, it’s a tawdry business. I wish the plaintiffs well.
“By coordinating their use of immersive marketing, AI, cloud computing, and algorithms customized for every customer, they hijack customers’ brains”
The globalist corporate oligarchy in coordination with the Democrat party does the same to Democrat voters. BUY THIS! VOTE FOR THIS! CHEAR THIS! OPPOSE THIS! RAGE ABOUT THIS! FEAR THIS! HATE THIS! GAMBLE ON THIS!
It's really rich of DraftKings and FanDuel to insist on people gambling "responsibly" when they bombard users with notifications about betting opportunities and even assign people to specific customers to target them and convince them to keep going. The NFL's partnership with and promotion of these sportsbooks also shouldn't be diminished. They are essentially serving up vulnerable individuals to these companies in the interest of profit. It's predatory behavior, pure and simple.
So terribly predatory. I’ve never found gambling appealing at all, but I know that one of my grandparents had their lives ruined because of this addiction. It’s awful that huge businesses are being built around exploiting this.
I could have sent the exact same email that you did. (A grandfather who was no longer alive when I was born despite his jovial attractive personality, ruined and jeopardized his and other's lives. How sad for his wife, the grandmother I never knew, who apparently adored him despite this addiction--a woman whose family started a university in Ireland.)
My grandfather lost my grandmother's life savings at the horse races thanks to his gambling addiction. And now, as you wrote, "...huge businesses are being built around exploiting this."
All of this strikes me more as a criminal enterprise than a big business. The thing is, the laws these days aren't written to protect the weak and vulnerable. They're written by the rich and powerful to further enrich and empower themselves.
What we've got here is another fine example of the old adage, "The love of money is the root of all evil".
Yes. It is truly frightening.We should just be saying no. No good can come out of this. Americans allow so many toxic things to exist. This should be shut down now.
American Business community has lost it's ability to distinguish between a business man and a con man. Caveat emptor is bad business.
Do the world a favor. Shut them down. Take away their money with lawsuits like this. What I hate as much as anything is our government being involved in gambling. No excuse for it.
States are hooked on this drug gambling- it provides them with revenue. In Illinois, you should see how many slot machines there are- probably an even worse gambling option.
I don't love the Mormons running Utah, but I have always appreciated the no gambling laws.
I'll bet these gambling scam artists declined to respond. When I see pop-up ads during the games, it sets me off. I said very early that this kind of instant betting would seed this kind of addiction, and families would be damaged.
Now, I'm going to add what I said about this a while back: This convenient form of betting will ultimately destroy sports, and the result will be permanent damage, because once trust in the games is lost, we can never get it back.
This form of gambling breeds an atmosphere for game fixing, and the potential for corruption is only limited by the ethics of the gambling establishment, a bunch of thieves that have very little empathy or ethics. If you believe that this is just entertainment, you're a fool. This could even eventually empty the stands, and then where would we be? Nowhere good.
Do you remember, "Say it ain't so, Joe. Say it ain't so"?
Kind of-- I have a lot of junk floating around the synapses factory, but it kind of rings a gong.
I know what you mean about junk in the attic. "Say it ain't so, Joe. Say it ain't so" was supposedly what a kid who was a big fan of Shoeless Joe Jackson said when Jackson was accused of taking a bribe to throw the World Series in 1919. It was a scandal that left a lasting stain on baseball. Your comment reminded me of it. I agree with you that there's a monster lurking beneath the thin veneer of "entertainment" that will destroy sports if it isn't caged.
Yeah, what amazes me is that not enough people have yet to realize the damage that lurks within this unlimited gambling. It’ll come out eventually. I hope it’s not too late.
Who hasn’t seen addiction wreck someone’s life? I have seen it too many times- alcohol, tobacco, gambling and other risky behaviors that ultimately killed persons I loved. And the damage to their families is unforgivable. And yet the institutionalization of addictive behaviors to legally turn a profit continues. Most states have lotteries taking money from those who can afford it the least. Alcohol and tobacco remain legal even though they ultimately kill. And now the fall out of the last decade of this experiment into legalized algorithmic sports betting and event betting like Polymarket. Bread and circuses. It’s all bread and circuses while the empire collapses. The level of manipulation of the masses, now with AI, by the few who make their money on their addictions never ends.
Bread and circuses... Indeed.
Another Robert's Court disaster ruling. The House always wins, unless it's a trump casino where the house goes bankrupt... The NFL is now more gambling enterprise than a sports league. I wonder how many unforced fumbles or deliberately dropped passes scored some big gains for the gambling hoards, and how much NFL insiders won in the betting parlors of their phones as they sat in their taxpayer funded stadium executive suites..
The “House” was laundering money for Russian Oligarchs… and trump was probably using his casinos as his personal piggy bank. Probably not a coincidence his CFO & other casino executives died in that helicopter crash.
Everyone everywhere is trying to squeeze every nickel out of our pockets. Whether it be necessity or pleasure, we are under attack to survive.
Social media, specifically Twitter/X, is complicit in this.
I don’t have a gambling problem: I have never placed a sports bet. But I disapprove of the industry.
Every time an ad pops up for a sports book or casino I block it, but it doesn’t help. More likely than not the next ad will be for another one. Twitter tells me I can change my ad preference, but no where I can find allows me to block the entire industry.
Imagine if I were a problem gambler. I would be inundated with constant ads. They should be held liable.
Glad you wrote this piece - desperately needed, just like a gag is, on these so-called sports betting ripoffs! The ads are everywhere - on my phone, on TV. I've even begun to think I'm hooked on some online games that make me want to keep playing, even when I need to purcha$e more to continue. I can see why/where people are addicted. But if these moneysucking betting apps were better regulated, maybe young men with families, mortgages, responsibilities would learn this is a losing game! I do blame these guys - it's always MEN - who become addicted to gambling, but I can see where/how it becomes such a part of their lives that they throw away everything to make the next losing bet.
When the history of this time is written, I think we will see that the major contributor to the decline of this country is the corrupt Supreme Court.
When the US began legalizing betting outside of casinos, it was only a matter of time before compulsive gambling became a nationwide epidemic. Sadly, the billions in profits are too much for the NFL and other professional leagues to ignore.
I’m sure I’m not the only one disgusted by every other ad being DraftKings or Fan Duel. The VIP Consigliere are a particularly malevolent “service” these vultures employ. It’s telling that they kick out successful gamblers from these VIP services. It’s the “coolers” of the digital age.
One more rant: The comment section of any sports story online is inundated with gamblers bragging or moaning…🤦🏻♂️
I enjoy watching NFL football and MLB baseball games, but the betting ads are relentless. I have no desire to place a bet, buy a luxury car, overspend on dining, travel, or expensive new pharmaceuticals to treat complaints I didn’t even know existed…so all the ads are wasted on me. But for some people, the pressure to conform is too strong. Isn’t the allure of wealth and success that’s out of reach the origin of gambling addiction? The desperate need to “score big”? Maybe not. Maybe it’s the unrealistic belief you are smarter than the “losers” and have to prove it constantly, mathematics be damned. Either way, it’s a tawdry business. I wish the plaintiffs well.
"... the NFL, Genius Sports, FanDuel, and DraftKings have all declined to comment." Imagine that.
I'm having a hard time deciding whether sharks, vultures, or snakes are a better way to describe these so-called "businessmen".
“By coordinating their use of immersive marketing, AI, cloud computing, and algorithms customized for every customer, they hijack customers’ brains”
The globalist corporate oligarchy in coordination with the Democrat party does the same to Democrat voters. BUY THIS! VOTE FOR THIS! CHEAR THIS! OPPOSE THIS! RAGE ABOUT THIS! FEAR THIS! HATE THIS! GAMBLE ON THIS!
The THIS changes, but the method is the same.
Am I being pessemistic, or does it seem like there are more and more "corporate problem-solver Democrats"?
That’s for a summary of the predatory industry. It needs to be shut down.