"That's Just Corruption": Sen. Chris Murphy on the Prediction Market Crackdown and Profiteering in Youth Sports
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to Pablo Torre Finds Out, presented by eBay Live. I am Pablo Torre, and today we're going to find out what this sound is.
If the NBA and the NFL get in bed with these prediction markets, they are knowingly corrupting the sport.
Right after this ad.
United States Senator from the state of Connecticut, Chris Murphy. How obnoxious of a UConn homer are you in your own estimation?
I mean, I'm pretty obnoxious.
What are prediction markets and why are they controversial?
I mean, Dan Hurley is, you know, kind of like a godlike figure. And I think everybody understands that. You went to law school there, yes? Yeah, I didn't go undergrad, but I went to law school. But I grew up in Connecticut. My parents grew up there. So, yeah, I was a junior in high school when Tate George hit that shot to beat Clemson to send UConn into the Elite Eight game. And since then, it's just been a dream. You know, we don't have a lot in Connecticut since the Whalers left Connecticut. So UConn is what we got.
You have Sue Bird winning games unto eternity. You get Ray Allen, Rip Hamilton. You get Karam Butler in that whole era, right? Like late 90s, early 2000s. You've been spoiled as we enter the Sweet 16, right? So just to do the accounting here for your partisanship on Friday, tomorrow, in the Sweet 16. The one-seed UConn women, Perennial Powerhouse, play No. 4 North Carolina at 5 p.m. Eastern. And then on the men's side, the top-seeded UConn Huskies play No. 3 Michigan State at 9.45 p.m. Eastern. Give us a picture of Chris Murphy when he's, you know, rooting for the Huskies.
I generally like do it on my own. I'm not great company for these games because I tend to get a little bit too wound up. I have like a weird ritual now where I get so, I get like just so anxious that I sort of have to watch the games on a little bit of tape delay so that I can like fast forward things through some of the tougher moments and then rewind and watch it again. So, yeah, I'm generally watching them on my own, maybe with my 14-year-old who's a big UConn fan, and I use the tape delay as a way to kind of address my...
anxieties as a way to self-regulate which is a theme of this entire conversation i dare say how does one regulate when you know what the excesses of such contests might be i just want to get the numbers by the way here in front of you because this whole tournament it's a high watermark economically and perhaps the opposite when it comes to what you have described as something afflicting the soul of sports which clearly you have perhaps unhealthy amount of love for but the amount being gambled legally here in america and this is not just sports betting but also now prediction markets which we will of course get into you've been instrumental in attempting to regulate those we're talking about about four and a half billion dollars and so what comes to mind when i mention you know an amount that's apparently on par with the gdp of suriname
Yeah. I mean, listen, first of all, I just think there's a lot of lives being ruined. Addiction gambling is a huge problem, especially amongst young boys today and young men. And I just think we have to recognize that. I think it's connected to a larger crisis that's happening amongst— Men and young men who are losing a little bit of their sense of identity and purpose in the world, they're trying to find new outlets for energy, trying to find new outlets for risk-taking, and that often comes through sports betting. I think for the non-better, though, it's fundamentally changed the product in many ways. So, like, my favorite show historically to watch, especially at the end of a long day, has been SportsCenter.
SportsCenter is just a betting show now, right? I mean, almost half the content on that show is about odds and about how to bet on the games tomorrow. And so I've stopped watching it in part because it just doesn't seem for me any longer. And then as the numbers get bigger, I just do think the opportunities for corruption are harder to avoid and more of these games are going to be rigged. So I don't know. For me, it's changed the experience for the worse, and I think we don't really understand yet how many lives ultimately get harmed when the bets are that big.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:33
2
What are prediction markets and why are they controversial?
0:33–12:43
3
How does Senator Murphy feel about the impact of gambling on sports?
12:43–24:45
4
What concerns does Senator Murphy have about insider trading in prediction markets?
24:45–26:19
5
What is the Bets Off Act and what changes does it propose?
26:19–35:37
Speakers
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