Gambling Is the Only Game in Town
By: Andy Kessler (WSJ)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
As I headed home from college for Thanksgiving, a foreign student staying the weekend asked about the holiday's meaning. I quickly answered, "Food, family and football." He said he understood the first two but not football. Another friend piped in, "To enjoy it, you gotta have a little action going on the games." So I took the Cowboys over the team formerly known as the Redskins (hopefully they'll be renamed the Washington Swampers soon). We had to explain spreads and over/under—like teaching a baby to walk.
A little action helps. I was in a sports bar during college basketball's March Madness when all the games were pretty much over, and then Northeast Louisiana hit a bucket at the buzzer to lose by only 8 with the spread at 9. I stood up and screamed and got a lot of funny looks. Yes, interest definitely turns into commitment. But I wonder if it's gone too far.
No question that gambling is fun, but it's not for everyone. You used to have to go to a casino, see a bent-nose bookie—I've got a horse right here, his name is Paul Revere—or physically write down your picks for a friend's football pool. Technology makes it so easy to bet—too easy. At any age. I worry.
Professional leagues have a rude history with betting: Raiders quarterback Kenny Stabler's relationship with a "well-known New Jersey gambling figure," National Basketball Association referee Tim Donaghy's prison time for betting and manipulating scores, and Pete Rose's ban for life for betting on baseball. Temptation is too alluring. But who cares now? Heck, the Raiders play in Las Vegas! Wanna bet all professional leagues embrace gambling as another revenue stream?
Now everyone is gambling. Online poker is addictive, until you lose. After the lockdown drought, sports blissfully came back, as did betting. Even formerly family-friendly fantasy football leagues are now big business. Betting operator DraftKings saw users up 64% and revenues almost double from last year's third quarter. If, like me, you wonder how this is possible, New Jersey won a 2018 Supreme Court ruling that allowed states to legalize sports betting. Bits easily cross borders to bet. The spigots have opened.
Lotteries are still a monster business, despite the truism that the lottery is a tax on people who don’t understand statistics. Same for casinos. I remember when New Jersey legalized gambling in Atlantic City. Soon after the Resorts Casino Hotel opened in 1978, the press was all over a story about a single mother on welfare who won a million-dollar jackpot playing dollar slot machines. It was a feel-good story for a day, until opinion pages started clucking, Uh, what the heck is a single welfare mother doing gambling at dollar slot machines? What indeed.
For the most part, I stay away from casinos or only play games where I have an advantage, like craps (OK, kidding). Once at an offshore casino, I taught a young son how to play blackjack. Feel free to question my parenting. He jubilantly found me later, saying he won $80. I looked him in the eye and explained, “yeah, that’s not your money. You’re only holding on to it until you eventually lose it back to casinos.”
In October 1987, I went with some colleagues to see Mike Tyson beat up Tyrell Biggs, presented by, yes, the Trump Plaza Atlantic City. We played blackjack afterward and the dealer, when he heard we were from Wall Street, asked, “Why would you guys come here? You work at the biggest casino in the world.” That’s never truer than now. Oh, and the market crashed that Monday.
Years later in the City of Lost Wages for a concert, I wandered into a sports book. Duke was at 10-to-1 odds to win the NCAA basketball championship. So I bet $100 and gave the ticket to my son at Christmas, who was a senior there. Duke won it all and now I don’t have to buy him presents for a decade.
People gamble on elections, celebrity baby names—heck, on almost anything, including whether an umpire’s baseball roll between innings will end up on the mound or back on the grass. Parleys, arbitrage, buying points—things can get very complicated separating you and your money.
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