Bet on College Students

Steve Sailer remarks on a New York Times article about colleges and universities promoting sports gambling to their student bodies. What took secondary ed so long? These are money making institutions that enable predatory loans to young people who will never be able to pay them back. These students become permanent revenue streams for their lenders. Why wouldn't colleges get into the sports gambling market? The pros have.

To watch sports-ball in 2022 is to be bombarded with sports gambling ads and odds. We see meaningless (to us) numbers crawl across the screen. What's +500 -350 mean? We're proud to say we've no idea how any of this works. We find NFL gambling ads as annoying and off-putting as those bigoted END RACISM displays in the endzone. 

Strutting players (that complaint is old enough to drive), flag happy officials, offense friendly rules...no wonder we're gradually becoming disinterested in the NFL. We caught some of the Giants yesterday and dismissed their loss with an indifferent shrug. 

With the exception of a few weeks in high school, in which one of our friends snuck in some professional sports betting slips before being busted, we've never been a gambler. We' don't get the lottery either, though we've always loved it. The lottery is a tax on stupidity. And we just love, love, the NFL PSA's about gambling. We embrace their chutzpah. 'Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER'. 

Speaking of chutzpah, kudos to Clay Travis, a big gambler himself we admit, for pointing out that the New York Times owns and 'overpaid' for The Athletic, which has a massive sports-gambling deal.

We don't get gambling, and never have. We're in the minority. Anyone who can afford to hire the entire Manning family for their ad campaigns is making a tonne of money. Those commercials are funny, we admit it. But shame on the Mannings anyway. 

Back in the summer of 1995, when we were interning in the senate, we watched a floor debate on a casino bill. Senator Paul Simon (D-Illinois) argued that casinos don't bring prosperity. Nothing is being produced, Senator Simon pointed out, and most of the jobs created are low paying. Atlantic City was a slum, he said. Then they brought in casinos. Now Atlantic City is a slum with casinos. Factories these casinos are not. 

Governments love casinos though, for the tax revenue they bring in. So we see the proliferation of casinos and online gambling. Just wait till governments figure out how to tax porn.