Interview Only w/ Danny Funt - Addicted, Unregulated, and Everywhere: The Sports Betting Explosion
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is an iHeart Podcast.
What unintended consequences arose from the rapid legalization of sports betting?
Guaranteed human.
This episode of the Chuck Toddcast is brought to you by Wild Grain.
Why did sports leagues shift from anti-gambling to pro-gambling?
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How have gambling companies influenced politics and regulation?
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What are the consequences of inadequate funding for gambling addiction support?
It is fantastic.
How has mobile gambling changed the landscape of betting?
They give you step-by-step instructions. I really dig this.
Why are individual sports considered more susceptible to corruption?
There is nothing like having an artesian bakery in your freezer to chase away the winter chill. Now is the best time to stay in and enjoy some comforting homemade meals with wild grain. I obviously highly recommend it. It is worth giving wild grain a try. Right now, wild grain is offering my listeners $30 off your first box plus free croissants for life. Come on. When you go to wildgrain.com slash TODCAST to start your subscription today, that's $30 off your first box and free croissants for life when you visit wildgrain.com slash TODCAST or simply use the promo code TODCAST at checkout. This is a sponsor I absolutely embrace. So use that code. So joining me now is the author of a new book. It's called Everybody Loses.
It's by Danny Funt. And it's a book about gambling and this sort of this new era, right? This is not even 10 years old, this sort of... not quite national legalization of sports gambling. Now the book itself is not necessarily an anti-gambling screed and it's not a nostalgia. So defense of some pure past, but it is an investigation into a policy decision that has had massive unintended consequences, this rapid legalization and commercialization of sports betting. Um, And I you could say the core argument of the book is this. America didn't just legalize sports betting. It industrialized it, financialized it and embedded it into the media ecosystem with almost no guardrails. The result's been the following.
What parallels can be drawn between sports betting and the tobacco industry?
It's an industry where states chase tax revenue, leagues chase engagement. Media companies chase ad dollars. Sports books chase recreational losers. And consumers are trained to lose slowly, constantly, and invisibly. Hence the title, Everybody Loses. Well, the author joins me now. Danny, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for having me. So let's establish a few things here. You do it yourself in the book. You're a sports fan. You gamble. Everybody that listens to my podcast knows I'm a sports fan. I gamble. I do picks for Tony Kornheiser. I've always dabbled in mostly football, in sports gambling. And yet there is... It all feels like it's been too much, too fast. And all of a sudden now we're adding everything else to this prediction markets and politics and culture.
And and there seems to be very little interest in public policymakers of figuring out, huh, should we have erected some guardrails? So tell me your motivation for doing this book.
You know, I've been covering it for several years, mainly for the Washington Post, and I felt like I was scratching the surface. I felt like two big things were not answered to my satisfaction. One was why did the leagues and so many politicians have this profound change of heart, right? They gave certain surface level explanations. I didn't find that totally satisfying. I felt like there had to be more to the story that hadn't been reported.
Let me put a pin in this. The harshest penalties... before the era of steroids, that professional leagues ever leveled was over gambling, whether it's Shoeless Joe Jackson in baseball, Paul Hornig in football, rumors of Mickey Mantle back in the day, Pete Rose.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:02
2
What unintended consequences arose from the rapid legalization of sports betting?
0:02–0:08
3
Why did sports leagues shift from anti-gambling to pro-gambling?
0:08–0:54
4
How have gambling companies influenced politics and regulation?
0:54–1:05
5
What are the consequences of inadequate funding for gambling addiction support?
1:05–1:07
6
How has mobile gambling changed the landscape of betting?
1:07–1:10
7
Why are individual sports considered more susceptible to corruption?
1:10–2:51
8
What parallels can be drawn between sports betting and the tobacco industry?
2:51–56:22
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from The Chuck ToddCast
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