People who report on or editorialize about various addictions (or alleged addictions) are often biased in a certain direction. Maybe a journalist has put in years of work to decriminalize cannabis, so they have strong feelings about that issue. Or perhaps a columnist experienced some form of sex addiction, and ruined what could have been a perfectly good marriage, and became alienated from not only the former spouse but the children, and so on.

Perhaps a public figure and recovering alcoholic now devotes a great deal of energy to helping others escape the grip of booze. Many people have strong feelings about experiences. Many have sturdy convictions about issues relevant to those experiences. Naturally, the combination of emotion and intellect enhances a writer’s willingness to tackle a subject.

At any rate, there is often some form or degree of connection between the particular addictive situation and the individual who chooses it as a topic. So, here are some musings and reflections from someone who, while owning several personal vices, has never felt the least attraction to gambling, on any level.

A big factor here is a general disinterest in the field to which so many bets are attached, namely, sports. Even if someone promised lifelong obscene wealth in return for a promise to buckle up and hunker down and learn something about professional sports, that would not help. The level of indifference is like an inborn immunity to a particular disease. It ain’t me, babe.

Recently quoted journalist Tim Marcin has a lot to say about the sports/gambling combo, and naturally mentions radio advertising, a medium that handily lends itself to satire because so many legal warnings must be squeezed into the allotted time. The copy is “read” very, very fast. Rather than expressing civic duty and potential grave consequences, it just sounds kind of wacky.

But airtime is pricey! “Gambling advertisers spent 40 percent more in 2022 than they did the year prior,” Marcin notes. The mandatory announcements spell it out: “Concerned with your play? Call 1-800-GAMBLER!” (If only the laws that regulate added sugar were as stringent as the ones applicable to betting apps!) He goes on to describe what sounds like the conception of an entire new and ambitious industry, which must co-exist with legalized gambling, just as monstrous energy-production facilities must accompany the growth of Artificial Intelligence.

Marcin writes:

Many of these states have their own hotlines and resources on the dangers of gambling, each of which is read out in the ad. The list will grow longer as more states open up access to sports gambling. Each state was left to handle the issue as they saw fit. So, just as states differed on how to regulate and tax alcohol, leading to a patchwork of limitations, disclosures, and policies, states are left with the same questions for sports gambling. And the problem is only getting worse.

The sad fact behind all this concern is that via gambling, people can mess up their lives in spectacular fashion. Please allow the interjection of a personal note here. A long time ago, a friend was employed by the city water department along with a fellow who, over the course of just a few short years, managed to gamble away $30,000. This was in the 60s, so with inflation, we’re talking about maybe 10 times that much in today’s money. For a working stiff, that’s quite a tab.

A 1998 movie called Phoenix is described thusly: “A cop with a gambling addiction plots a theft from the bookies who are putting pressure on him to pay off or else.”

In a dire situation, hunted by the gangsters he owes a ton of money to, the protagonist breaks into a disused building. Alone, bleeding from a gunshot wound, in pain, collapsed on the floor, and with a very short life expectancy, Harry sets up a race between two cockroaches. His favorite loses. So, being a man of honor who at least tries to pay his debts, he burns a $100 bill.

Point being, when you bet against yourself, you’ll always lose; there is no other way it can go. It’s a metaphor for being hooked on gambling. Whether you win or lose, you lose. The theme is, “Never, ever trust a gambler.”

People involved with the appropriate 12-step program say that of all the related vices, gambling does the most damage because there is no set price. This apparently references the cost of one individual episode. You can only spend so much on a hit of dope, and you can only die once… while a bet can be for a gazillion dollars, and do stupendous damage, while still not relieving the gambler of the burden of life.

Written by Pat Hartman. First published May 14, 2026.

Source:

“Endless gambling ads have become the scourge of sports podcasts,” Mashable.com, April 14, 2023.

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