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The Normalization of Sports Gambling
And why it sucks
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Sports betting used to be something along the fringes of society. The kind of act that takes place in the corner of a poorly lit, smoky room in the outskirts of a random town. Or strictly under the dazzling lights of Vegas. The two extremes of this singular image of largely illegal activity, up until the mid-2000’s, was what made the appeal insignificant, at least to my adolescent mind. The anecdote of a buddy coming back from Vegas or a work trip a whole new person has this tarnish to it now, this “I know what you are,” that wouldn’t have been clocked just over a decade ago.
It’s cool now to win thousands on a long odds parlay, glorified even, the dream simply one bet slip away from life-changing money. Ignoring the massive amounts of money wasted and bets placed and sweating late night, overseas third tier leagues, it almost seems worth it. The illusion of sports gambling is, perhaps, the most well hidden and least stigmatized form of harmful substances, only aided by its accessibility and few entry barriers.
There seems to be no counter force that can limit the wholesale migration to sports gambling, a staunch opposition to traditional gambling that is largely limited by geography, convenience, and surveillance. You can bet on sports from…
