Last year, on Election Day, there was an important decision being made here in the state of Missouri. Not the presidency, nor the Senate, nor the House, although those were important decisions to be made. Not those, no, but Amendment 2. The ballot measure to determine whether or not the state of Missouri would legalize sports betting.
After a ruthless campaign by the betting industry, including spokespeople like Ozzie Smith, and promises of upwards of $100 million over the next five years for education, the measure passed with 0.05% of the vote. That’s 2,961 votes separating the two. In other words, that’s 0.001% of the people voting on the measure.
Due to that razor-thin margin, sports betting has been legal in the state of Missouri since Dec. 1. Since 2018, when the legality of such (previously illegal nationwide except for special cases) was turned over to the states in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, 39 states have legalized it, with 30 allowing bettors to use mobile apps. Missouri has become the 40th.
It’s not like this has been a new problem– 7 of our 8 neighboring states have also legalized it. Most notable to this area is the casino directly across the river from the Gateway Arch, which after the legalization in Illinois in 2020, took on the name of DraftKings at Casino Queen. Regardless, it was still outlawed from mobile phones here in Missouri. No more.
I have few problems with a physical sportsbook, especially compared to an online one. The gambling industry, while dangerous if you get into it, requires you to make a conscious decision to visit a casino to do so. Or a gas station to buy a scratcher. You have extra opportunities to rethink your decisions. Mobile betting, however, is dangerous. Having a phone in hand, you can cast a bet without even thinking about it, and they know it. Which is why they try to push it onto you at every possible opportunity.
You can’t watch a sporting event without seeing an ad for a sportsbook anymore. DraftKings, BetMGM, FanDuel, they are everywhere. DraftKings has a sportsbook building inside of Wrigley Field. Even the network you watch the Cardinals and Blues on is named FanDuel Sports Network Midwest. And that was before Amendment 2 had passed. They have even started sending mailers to houses now to advertise the legality.
But it gets worse than that. Whenever you see an ad, it’s not just telling you to bet so you can “get excited for games you otherwise wouldn’t watch.” Although that has been a claim of theirs, the number one advertising strategy by miles is free bets. “Sign up now and get $300 in free bets. Spend $5 and get $400,” et cetera. This isn’t real money, it’s in-store credit, designed to get you hooked and start with an easy can’t-lose scenario, before you get addicted and start sending more and more of your money to these companies. How do they succeed at business if they’re giving you free money? That’s how. The house always wins.
We’re still not done, however. There’s an even more dangerous art than simply betting on who will win when: the parlay. Bettors are drawn to these because they promise huge rewards if fulfilled. A parlay, to put it simply, is a series of conditions, all of which have to be fulfilled. This team has to win, and this guy has to hit 2 home runs, and this guy has to have 10 strikeouts. It’s extremely risky, but the bettors see massive payouts and are drawn to them. It’s not hard to see why, but it’s also easy to see the danger. If betting on who wins is a sinkhole for your money, parlays are a black hole.
The other side of the coin is also a problem. There have been many cases in which players have been cyberbullied or received hate mail for doing something so despicable as failing to fulfill their intended goal for their parlay. One recent example: Carolina Hurricanes hockey player Seth Jarvis, who got hit with a stick in the eye in their Nov. 14 game against the Vancouver Canucks. Immediately afterwards, many bettors were either complaining that he got injured because it decreased their payout, asking their sportsbooks if his bets would be voided, or telling him to “be a man” and continue playing. (Jarvis is fine, by the way, he played the very next night.)
Doing this to adults would be one thing, and it’s already awful, but what’s worse is the prevalence of this in college sports as well. Grown men yelling at 19-year-olds for not fulfilling parlays. It would be ridiculous if someone at a casino yelled at the slot machine for not stopping where they wanted it to. The difference here is that these athletes, unlike a slot machine, have feelings. If you wouldn’t do it to a slot machine, why would you do it to an actual person?
This is where I would give you my solution, but in this case I don’t have one. There’s no example of a sports betting amendment being overturned yet, and it’s not likely for the state government to pull back anytime soon. My only advice to you would be not to do it. If you’re desperate for a game to mean something, you can have the same amount of fun with fantasy sports as well, without the risk of losing your life savings. People have been doing it for years. But do not let yourself fall into the trap of these sportsbooks. And do not let your friends, family, or loved ones do it either.
