What to do about sports gambling addiction in America [mini post]
38 of the 50 states and DC. Those are the geographies in which sports gambling is now legal. Billions of betting dollars change hands annually on the outcomes of NFL, NBA, and other games. Some of this might have moved from underground into legit channels but I suspect most of it is new to the system. To most participants this is just good fun. For a very very small number it’s profitable. Between those two groups are a consumer population for whom it devastates their lives: addicted gamblers. Unfortunately the mobile apps are getting very good at targeting, growing and parasitically enabling that group.
Despite increasing evidence that participants are by and large hurting their lives by playing, the horserace is out of the barn. We’re not going back. So how do we move forward? Do you just focus on regulating the apps to try and prevent the most extreme abusive behaviors? Do you let the apps do their thing but force them to fund a greater safety net for addiction treatment? I’m suspect of both of those, the former because it’s difficult to draw a single line and capitalism always finds a way to walk a grey area tightrope. The latter because the addicted often cause problems for others before they seek help themselves (and only percentage ever do). So here’s what I think:
First, stay the course and allow legalization state by state.
Next, at the Federal level, enforce escalating regulations, based on the annual amount gambled per participant. For example,
- Up to $1k total wagered per year you can gamble with winnings tax free (today everything is taxable; here we’re creating a better threshold to give the the betting apps something in return for supporting the rest of these changes).
- Once you hit $1k you can unlock another $9k in total wagers (eg $10k a year in wagers) by showing that you have $100k in assets and/or a credit score about 700.
- Beyond $10k you need to essentially undergo an accredited investor check after which you can gamble uncapped amounts subject to just the state/industry regulations in place for consumers, the apps, etc
Because of the KYC already in place for this apps it’s difficult to account farm — I don’t believe my suggestion would just cause people to create hundreds of accounts to wager $999 in order to avoid taxes.
Individual freedoms are really important and quite often MORE REGULATION isn’t the answer. But my goal would be to create some reasonable frictions that mobile sports gambling has eliminated and forcibly reduce the number of participants who can wager sums of money that put their stability at risk.
I assume some folks will take issue here and suggest that either gambling *should* be illegal, or the government shouldn’t be involved at all. Outside of that, I’m curious about other holes in my plan and/or more effective ways to achieve a similar goal.
FWIW, I probably gamble less than $100 annually on sports although as a fan and media junky, I’ve followed the industry for decades. From Jimmy the Greek and the Sports Tabloids being the only mentions of betting lines to what we have today where sports media has basically Pivoted to Gambling.
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Bluesky has the JUICE
Originally published at https://hunterwalk.com on December 27, 2024.
