As more and more states legalize sports gambling, it’s fairly apparent we have gone pretty far down the rabbit hole.
So far, in fact, we’re probably never climbing out.
Our grandparents’ generation, in my case the generation that fought World War I, would never recognize us, and that isn’t really a good thing.
One of the biggest changes for the worse has been our relationship with money. Most folks back then made money in only one way — they worked for it. Whether it was salary, commission or selling goods they had made themselves, that was pretty much it except for the few people lucky enough to invent something.
There was no easy way to easy street.
I was 14 years old when New Hampshire started the first state lottery. At that time the only legal gambling was on horse or dog races and on sports in Nevada.
Since then, gambling of one form or another has spread to 48 of the 50 states, and in one of the two that doesn’t, major casinos are less than a two-hour drive from its largest city. That means it’s easier to gamble if you live in Utah than in many stages with legalized gambling.
It probably shouldn’t surprise anyone that people often refer to Wendover as “Bendover.”
Hawaii is really the only state where residents have no easy access to legalized gambling.
Gambling has been called the Stupidity Tax, and there are far more people who lose money gambling than those who win. Imagine someone who buys $10 worth of tickets twice a week for the Lottery. That may not sound like much, but it adds up to more than $1,000 a year.
But where it’s really going to be a disaster is sports betting. States have been given the option to legalize betting on professional sports, and that’s not a $10 lottery ticket twice a week.
That’s where people with gambling problems really get screwed.
I’ve never really bet on sports events. I remember two times — both in the mid ’80s — when I placed small bets. The first was the 1984 National League Championship Series. With the Cubs ahead 2-0 in the best-of-five series, a friend offered me 10-1 odds if I bet $10 on San Diego.
The Padres won.
The next year, I made a $10 parlay bet on an NFL game. For 5-2 odds, I took one time to cover and also bet the under in the over-under.
Hello, $25.
But I never picked up the habit.
It’s going to be scary to see what happens to a lot of people living on the margins. Too many people trying to get rich without working hard.
The smart guys are the ones who take the bets, not the ones who make them.