Stop Predatory Gambling

Northwestern University head football coach David Braun is the most recent prominent sports figure to spotlight the failure of legalizing commercialized sports gambling across the country:

"I’m telling you what, I got 11-year-old and 9-year-old boys at home and I am terrified of how addictive gambling is... It’s predatory. It’s messed up what’s going on. You look at 18-25 year old young men out there right now and the predatory nature of this stuff—it’s really scary."

News reports have leaked that some in Congress are considering investigating certain industries for their business practices.

Included on this leaked dossier is “a hearing with the chief executives of the online sports gambling companies about how the industry uses artificial intelligence to encourage compulsive gambling.”

A hearing with gambling industry executives under oath should be a #1 priority. Congress should aggressively pursue it with the same urgency they once brought to Big Tobacco, Big Tech, and Big Pharma.

No single act of government inflicts more financial, social, and mental health harm to the well-being of the American people than the institution of predatory gambling. The people of Nebraska did something about it yesterday.

In the face of a massive spending blitz by gambling interests pushing the con of "property tax relief" in return for legalizing online gambling across the state, Nebraska voters decidedly voted down predatory gambling proposals.

Nebraska State Treasurer Joey Spellerberg summed it up well:

“We got outspent 20-1, this was a David and Goliath matchup… We have a very special culture in our state… To say no to online sports betting protects that… I want to thank Nebraskans for protecting our kids and what makes Nebraska a great place to live, work, and raise a family.”

Special thanks to the extremely talented leadership of the @nebfamily, Pat Loontjer and Gambling With the Good Life, and the Save Nebraska Sports coalition for spearheading the winning campaign.

On @DKThomp's podcast today, Breaking Points host @esaagar condemned the 2018 nationwide legalization of sports gambling as one of the worst policy failures in modern American history.

Enjeti highlighted how emerging prediction markets exploit deceptive loopholes to convince users they are participating in an investment platform rather than a gambling app:

“This is a company (Kalshi) built on the back of regulatory arbitrage, where they redefine gambling as prediction markets, basically buys off the CFTC, and gets the federal government to legalize gambling nationwide… I’m sorry, that's not innovative. That’s not impressive. That is not something we should celebrate as part of the American story… Nothing gives me more genuine despair than online gambling… I am watching people destroy their entire lives.”

Jason Robins, CEO of DraftKings, attempts to frame gambling harm as a matter of parental responsibility in this news clip from @GMA.

What Robins is really doing is shielding his financial scheme from legal accountability.