Former New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang has voiced concerns over the state of state in sports betting affairs in the United States.
The Bold Case for Why Sports Gambling Must Come with Better Guardrails
Writing an opinion piece for Newsweek, a popular media outlet and magazine in the country, the entrepreneur raised concerns over the proliferation of sports gambling in the United States that has not come with the right safeguards in place.
According to Yang, the issue does not solely lie in the regulated market. For example, Yang himself has been gambling after being offered a $250 promotion on an unregulated sportsbook that hooked him.
Sports gambling companies, he argues, whether regulated or otherwise try to exploit and elicit strong emotions in their players so that they can become interested and subsequently “hooked” to the activity.
“Betting on sports online is a perfect storm for men in that it combines things we enjoy at a visceral level: sports, money, speed, risk, and thinking that we know something that others don’t. It’s social, and it makes spending time on sports seem like a job that will pay you money,” Yang wrote, enumerating all the potential ills and offering an outline of an activity that is designed to encourage you to spend more.
Yang has echoed the findings of credible bodies, including the Lancet Public Health Commission and the World Health Organization, which have both outlined the fact that gambling disorder is a major problem that has serious real-life consequences.
In his editorial, Yang harps on a similar string, arguing that every dollar a bettor spends on their sporting account is $2 that failed to land in their investment accounts.
This may seem an odd statement, but it has been borne out by a study conducted by researchers from Brigham Young University (BYU), Northwestern University, and the University of Kansas.
Other studies have argued that expanding gambling comes with a greater societal cost and harm levels.
The New Tax on America’s Low-Income Men
Another study also pointed out that bettors tend to have slightly worse credit scores or be driven into bankruptcies more often. Of course, sports betting is not the sole culprit here, Yang acknowledges, as other factors in those people’s lives drive them to certain lengths, but it is nonetheless important.
He presciently cites instances of domestic violence increasing because of people losing sports bets and taking them out on their closest family. He even goes so far as to liken online sports betting to the “new tax” on Americans.
A tax, argues Yang, that preys upon the vulnerable, low-income men in particular. “It increases financial stresses and emotional problems. It’s not what your citizens need,” Yang said in his sobering account of the sports gambling industry.
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