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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.

Think the problem is that 'social barriers' are now permeable enough that one can't accept something without, in effect, tacitly approving that it become ubiquitous.

You can pretty much ONLY have either a blanket ban, heavily enforced, or ads everywhere and run into it constantly on the streets.

I'm overstating it, but yeah, once something crosses the barrier into social 'acceptability' it tends to jump to straight-up social approval. I contemplate this a lot.

It can go the other way, see tobacco cigarettes.

I don't know if that's necessarily the case. In Pennsylvania, at least, the social acceptability of gambling far preceded it's legality. In the early 2000s the campaign to legalize gambling was largely predicated on the fact that the casinos in West Virginia were full of PA residents, as evidenced by the number of PA plates in the parking lots. From there it was a long, gradual slide as states tried to outdo each other. First it was going to be limited to slots but WV legalized table games ahead of PA's approval so PA had to go ahead and add table games. They were supposed to limit licenses to one per region (with special rules for racetracks) to prevent it from becoming like WV where there are "hotspots" all over the place. Then these rules were gradually relaxed to allow more smaller casinos, and small game of chance licenses for bars. It's still not as bad as WV, but with online gaming and the emergence of sports books it's hard to tell PA from any other state that allows gambling and isn't Nevada.

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