A lot of the points in the article are valid. I have two major issues with online sports betting (OSB) in the US.
1. Sports betting advertising before, during, and after games is horrendous. There is no way to watch sports without being bombarded. Obviously, this is a huge issue for problem gamblers. Sports become unwatchable.
2. Self-exclusion is impossible. There's 40+ sports betting apps available. There is no centralized body a person can say "hey don't let me bet anymore" and then be automatically restricted from betting across all apps. This is something I think we can help with in the near future.
So what can be done now? I don't think OSB is going to be redeclared illegal. I don't think that would be a good idea either. Millions of people have started sports betting. If it becomes illegal, it won't make them stop.
Happy to discuss this further. Email is in my profile.
I disagree - I think it would be a great idea. While some may argue that gambling is a zero-sum game (which isn't exactly great, in and of itself), it's really a net loss. While some people may win a bit of money, I'd argue that the degree to which their lives are improved is much less than the degree that some others' lives are destroyed. Gambling, ultimately, being a negative sum.
> Millions of people have started sports betting. If it becomes illegal, it won't make them stop
I disagree with this too. It's substantially easier for any random person to simply tap a few buttons on their phone to place a bet than to find and arrange opportunities with others to bet on sports or visit a brick & mortar betting site. The level of effort of placing a phone bet is so small (and with 24/7 access), you'd have a very hard time arguing that making OSB illegal would only marginally impact the amount of sports gambling taking place.
Bottom line: gambling is an addictive activity for all people and some more so than others. Limiting access to it will have a positive impact on pretty much everyone who does't own or work at a gambling company.
"Offshore sportsbooks" are another thing to consider. These companies are not regulated in the US market, but still take online bets from people in the US. The ease of placing bets online does not go away with making OSB illegal. Just eliminates any consumer protection we could have had.
If you are successful in getting a majority of OSB companies to allow bets to be placed via your app, then I would think this would lead to the various odds and payouts all converging as price discovery becomes much simpler through one app. This would make OSB less profitable as an industry, right? I see this as a good thing, but then I think you’d run into issues with getting (the bigger) OSB companies pulling their API access from you so that they can’t be compared and bet on as easily.