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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   30419 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 21, 2022

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How Colleges and Sports-Betting Companies ‘Caesarized’ Campus Life

The online gambling deals have helped athletic departments recoup some of the revenue they lost during the pandemic. The partnerships bring in extra funds that schools can use to sign marquee coaches and build winning sports teams. Mr. Haller, Michigan State’s athletic director, said in a news release at the time of the Caesars deal that it would provide “significant resources to support the growing needs of each of our varsity programs.”

The partnerships raise questions, however, about whether promoting gambling on campus — especially to people who are at an age when they are vulnerable to developing gambling disorders — fits the mission of higher education.

Some aspects of the deals also appear to violate the gambling industry’s own rules against marketing to underage people. The “Responsible Marketing Code” published by the American Gaming Association, the umbrella group for the industry, says sports betting should not be advertised on college campuses.

promoting gambling to 18 year olds is the latest way in which college sports are distorting the goal of college. at uc boulder, the school gets $30 every time someone downloads an app and makes a bet. the faculty managed to ensure that this money went to the right causes, though:

“We came up with the idea that the money from the referral bonus could actually go toward diversity and inclusion and equity efforts at the university, in particular because a lot of the money in athletics are made from underrepresented minorities,” Mr. Hornstein said. A spokesman for the university’s chancellor, Philip DiStefano, confirmed that some of the money will be used to expand mental health and diversity initiatives.

I am honestly amazed with how quickly the 'vice' of gambling has seemingly become accepted as a mainstream practice with virtually no pushback from the either main political party, even the one that would presumably see gambling as exploitation of vulnerable populations (I'll let you decide which one that is!).

Seems like for the longest time sports betting was this shady thing you could only do via bookies in Vegas, then seemingly overnight there were DraftKings ads EVERYWHERE.

I'd add on to that all the hype around the Powerball and Poker championships these days.

Oh, add in that Gambling sponsorships and livestreams were becoming so ubiquitous that Twitch had to ban them. Fucking KIDS being advertised at here.

Can't forget that the EU is trying to reign in video game lootboxes, which also have become insanely common. Again. Kids.

ESPECIALLY when you put all this against the backdrop of the Crypto market being called out as just one big complicated casino.

Well, guys, if you're absolutely fine with college students taking on debt to bet on sports teams, you really can't complain if they're taking on debt to bet on magic internet dollars with Shiba Inus or fancy jpegs of apathetic monkeys. The complaint really seems to be that you're not getting a cut of the action.

And, finally, you've got the CFTC refusing to approve prediction markets for elections, for completely opaque reasons. Plenty of approved markets for literal natural disasters but something as important as an election vote count? NOPE.

All in all, a very confusing environment regarding what is gambling and what isn't gambling, and which types of gambling are legitimate and accepted and which are, I guess, sneered at and relegated to seedier venues.

Because it became easy to do. If your phone dispensed cocaine we'd probably see a lot more addiction to that as well.

If your phone dispensed cocaine we'd probably see a lot more addiction to that as well.

Uh, how do you think most people buy cocaine these days? Carrier pigeon?

In the sense you can use your smartphone to buy cocaine from someone else, yes, but you still need that someone else - you can gamble directly on your smartphone. Buying cocaine has gotten easier but everything has gotten easier. What matters is that some things have gotten easier than others. Going to the cinema is easier - but relative to watching movies at home, it has gotten harder. Getting an airline ticket to go to Las Vegas has gotten easier - but relative to playing the monkey jpg and dog coin market, it has gotten harder.

Yes, the length of the feedback loop is incredibly relevant.

But just like being able to order 100 different varieties of fast food for delivery via your phone probably makes it harder to resist and contributes to obesity, the fact that you don't have to head down to a crappy part of town and exchange cash in a back alley is likely making drug addictions easier to feed.

So yes, 'because it became easy to do,' but that's the rub. There is literally NO behavior, vice or not, that is not easier to indulge now. If you live in the West, that is.

So yes, 'because it became easy to do,' but that's the rub. There is literally NO behavior, vice or not, that is not easier to indulge now. If you live in the West, that is.

Violence is the vice we have lost. A hundred and fifty years ago, a man with my resources would have had no problem seeing a public execution live at home or abroad. I don't think I could now without getting deep into weird travel destinations.

In my dad's generation, if I went out to a bar I would have no problem getting into a fistfight, and while it would have been distasteful for a man in my position to get into a bar fight, it would not have been seen as disqualifying. I wouldn't lose my licenses, no one would say I was per-se a bad person, etc. Today, someone would probably tell my wife to leave because I'm a "violent man." I might go to jail, the mutual combat exception has been gutted.

I guess the counter would be something like violent video games or violent movies, but I don't think fighting digitally is quite the same vibe.

a man with my resources would have had no problem seeing a public execution live at home or abroad. I don't think I could now without getting deep into weird travel destinations.

/r/narcofootage has some absolutely gruesome stuff out of Mexico every so often.

It would be terribly ill-advised, but if you were willing to travel down there you might be able to arrange something.

https://reynolds-news.com/2020/10/04/executed-via-guillotine-an-eye-witness-account/

In the 19th century a good bourgeois could spend a spring afternoon going to see a guillotine execution, then go on with his tour of France. He could tell all his friends about it at home, the way I might describe an art exhibition or a religious ceremony I witnessed abroad, a curiosity.

Today I'd have to go try to make contact with a cartel, somehow, without myself inevitably getting scammed or murdered, and if I ever mentioned it to anyone at home it would disqualify me as a normal bourgeois.

Much like the op comment talked about how sports gambling went from "knowing a shady bookey at a bar down by the river, never mention it in polite society" to "I use the draftkings app on my phone with my wife, and own their stock." Watching a live execution has gone the other way entirely.

Right, but there are 24 hours in the day. You cannot increase all behaviors - if people are spending more time gambling, they're spending less time doing something else.

I assure you it is possible to consume drugs, gamble. And spend copious amounts of money all at the same time.

Last time I went to the casinos they has attendants who you could pay to give you massage while you played.

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