My Updated Sports Betting Post

Remember a few months ago when I wrote a post about how I needed to stop sports gambling? Well, that has proved difficult. At the time, my excuse was that I didn’t want to delete the apps because I wanted to see the outcome of some season-long wagers. Would the Washington Wizards win over 20.5 games? No because the franchise purposely tanked in the attempt to get a better draft pick (and it worked!). Would Sidney Crosby have more points than Jack Hughes? No because Crosby got hurt during the Olympics and didn’t play in 2 of the final 3 games of the regular season to rest for the playoffs. Would the Portland Trailblazers make the playoffs? Hey, I got one right!

My next excuse was that I wanted to wait until I finished reading the book “Everybody Loses” by Danny Funt before deleting the FanDuel and DraftKings apps. The idea is that I would share parts of the book in a blog post in conjunction with stopping sports betting. Although I made the decision to stop following about a dozen people on Twitter who post almost exclusively about sports betting and their picks (and often want you to subscribe to get their best picks), I finished the book last month and still continued to bet.

Finally, on my birthday, I withdrew most of the money from my DraftKings and FanDuel accounts and deleted the apps. I understand that continuing to have a little bit of money (about $25) in each account means that I’m not totally done with sports betting. The sites often have promotions where if you make a $5 or $10 wager, you get 3 months of AppleTV or a full season of NBA Season Pass. Assuming that I make only the one bet to get the subscription, this is a good investment. Maybe not the best rationale, I know.

So what did I learn? If you bet a lot of money, and have success, sportsbooks* can and will limit the amount you wager. If you’re a VIP, sportsbooks will provide all types of incentives…as long as you continue to lose. Now, I don’t fall into either of these categories. As I mentioned in my previous post, most of my bets are $1. Still, I would make 10-20 wagers a day. While I ended up ahead, that’s a lot of time spent on the apps and probably more time following the bets and thinking about the next bets I wanted to make. The sportsbooks have few guardrails and offer little support. Sure, there’s fine print on commercials about addiction and when you login to the apps, a message appears with a phone number to contact if you have a gambling problem, but that’s there to give the sportsbooks some coverage. If you try to sue DraftKings for getting you addicted to sports gambling, they can point to the disclaimer. Of course, the books’ business models need you to continue to bet. It’s a conflict of interest for them to have you stop wagering. And how much are states using money they make from sportsbooks on helping people with gambling addictions? Not as much as they should, and that's probably being generous.

And gambling is addicting. You’re chasing money. You’re chasing the action. Even on my $1 bet, I’ll stick around to the end of an NBA game to see if a team covers a spread or follow a full baseball game to watch if the number of runs are over or under a certain amount. Sports leagues know this which is why they support gambling. Higher ratings mean more money from sponsors and for TV rights. Are the integrity of games under scrutiny? Absolutely. If there’s a bad call, people will wonder if the referee is getting paid by someone. Same if a player misses a tackle or drops a pass. Some players have been banned for making sports bets or throwing a ball to start an inning. While sportsbooks might say that they help track unusual action, and they probably do, they can’t catch everything. Sports leagues are trying to balance a fine line here. They want to say that the increased revenue from sports gambling is good for the leagues and partnering with sportsbooks helps find criminal elements. I mean, it's definitely good for the leagues' bottom lines. However, it's only a matter of time before something truly negative happens. Maybe it's something akin to the Black Sox scandal where members of the team were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series. 

Maybe it's some superstar that gets caught betting on his or her team. I worry that some disgruntled gambler who blames a player for a loss and physically assaults the player, the player's family, or damages the player's property. 

There's a societal issue here too. There are more bankruptcies in states that allow sports betting and who knows how many families and individuals have been hurt from gambling losses. I wrote in December that I’m really concerned about sports betting among teenagers and young adults and particularly my son The Moose who is now 15. He is obsessed with sports and spends way too much time on his phone, primarily following sports. That’s why I deleted the apps. When he turns 18 or 21, I can’t tell him not to gamble when I continue to have them on my phone. I just think of this PSA:

I understand that gambling isn't going away. Sportsbooks actively limiting the amount people wager would be helpful, meaning that they should know if their clients have the means to bet a certain amount. More money into helping people with gambling addictions and to study gambling would be great too. I just don't see this happening anytime soon.

* I’m using sportsbooks as a general term, primarily for sports betting apps. It’s incredibly easy to make bet after bet at any time using your phone. It’s much harder to make instant and impulsive bets if you have to go somewhere in-person.

My Sports Betting Post

I've been thinking about writing some variation of this post for a very long time. It’s long. I’ll include some videos to provide a break.

If you watch or listen to sports on television, radio, online, or in person, you are inundated with advertisements for sports betting. All of the professional sports leagues and some (many?) individual sports teams have partnerships with various gambling companies such as FanDuel, DraftKings, and BetMGM. Even if you are able to ignore the commercials, the announcers give live odds with graphics showing them. ESPN highlights scores and schedules via the scroll on the bottom of the screen but will also show game odds. It's impossible to avoid sports betting. More on this momentarily.

Virginia legalized sports betting in April 2020. Online sportsbooks started accepting wages in early 2021. I downloaded the BetRivers app several months after that. I got some type of sign-up bonus and deposited maybe $50 or $100 of my own. I was down to the last few dollars in my account for the 2022 NCAA men's basketball tournament championship between Kansas and North Carolina. I had some type of bonus bet where I picked Kansas to win the national title before the tournament began and would get a pretty good payout if the Jayhawks won. If I lost, I told myself that I wasn't going to make another deposit, and I would be done with sports betting. Kansas won, so I won.

First break!

I signed up for FanDuel in October 2022 and transitioned away from BetRivers. I started on DraftKings in February 2023, probably thanks to some type of Super Bowl promotion. I don't think that my initial deposit on either site was more than $10. While I'm not 100% sure of the accuracy, in my three years on FanDuel, I believe I have won about $150. I think I'm up around $500 on DraftKings. That sounds pretty good, and winning is definitely better than losing, but I'm starting to think I have a problem.

What concerns me most about the prevalence of sports betting is the impact on kids, primarily for those from the ages of about 12-25. (And yes, I know that people in their 20s aren't really kids.)  Actually, it's not the prevalence of sports betting; it's how easy it is to bet which is concerning. I knew a bookie when I was in college. I made one wager with him on the January 1996 Steelers-Cowboys Super Bowl and that was it. I've also made a few bets at sportsbooks when visiting Las Vegas over the years. In both those cases, you had to physically go somewhere to make a bet. Now, all you have to do is download an app and you can make bets on all kinds of things 24/7. Sure, wagers on football (NFL and college), baseball, and basketball are probably the most common in America, but you can wager on anything. Snooker, badminton, tennis matches in Argentina or Indonesia. Any soccer league in the world. There is always the opportunity to make a wager on a live sporting event. And yes, I'm guilty of doing this. 

Here's a video of me in Iceland going between the tectonic plates separating Europe and North America!

Lucy (my cat) often wakes me up around 5:00 AM. After I feed her, I regularly go on my phone to check email, see if anything big is happening in the world, and find out whether I won or lost bets from the previous night. I've also been known to make a wager on some live tennis or soccer matches without knowing anything about the players or teams. I should probably mention that I historically wager about $10-$15 a day. Nearly all of my wagers are $1. Sometimes, I go crazy and make a $2 bet on a game. Relatively low stakes, but I spend way more time on betting sites than I should. I also follow at least a dozen sports betting people on Twitter and check out a few different sports betting shows online. As I wrote above, I've had some success, and winning money is obviously better than losing. However, the issue isn't the money. It's the time. I don't think I want to know how much money I've made per hour spent on the betting sites or reading/following bettors. It must be insignificant. Actually, what’s even worse for me is the FanDuel Faceoff app. You play various cards or strategy games (such as Freecell solitaire and Boggle) against people for money. Even when you when, FanDuel wins. And when you lose, FanDuel wins more. By the way, I'm glad there wasn't a Minesweeper game like this when I was in college. I would still be in debt.

While I try to hide it from them, my kids have seen me on the sports betting apps. The Moose (14) seems to only care about sports. He loves ESPN. I'm pretty sure he's seen the Bad Beats segments they have on Sportscenter. Although I don't watch Pat McAfee, I know that he does, and there's probably some sort of gambling aspect on the show. (At a minimum, ESPN shows odds on the bottom scroll.) The Moose recently asked me how old you need to be to bet on sports. I was leaning towards stopping sports betting before he asked me this, but this sealed it. Do as I say, not as I do doesn't really work. It's time to delete the apps, but it's not that easy. And this is another way that the sports gambling sites get you. Courtesy of some boosts, I have several season-long wagers. I have $10 (to pay out $21.50) on the Steelers making the playoffs. $5 (to pay out $10.45) on Sidney Crosby having more regular season points than Jack Hughes of the New Jersey Devils. $10 (to pay out $27.40) on the Washington Wizards winning over 20.5 games. (As I'm typing this, the Wizards are 3-16. I thought they could win 25% of their games. Looks like I have chosen poorly.) 

With the cash out option gone, it seems like these apps will remain on my phone through the end of the NHL and NBA seasons until these bets are settled.*

The Moose is probably one of thousands if not millions of people asking the same questions. When can I start betting? How much money can I make? When The Moose asked me about sports betting, I tried to explain to him that the reason there are so many betting commercials is because the sports books are making millions of dollars. 

I don't think I shared this story before. I got my Masters degree in Higher Education and Student Affairs. For one of my classes, two of my classmates and I did a small research project on gambling among students at our school. I remember very little about this. I'm sure we had some theories or conclusions, but I don't recall what they were. However, at around the same time as we finished a paper, I attended a student affairs conference and went to a session about gambling among college students. The basics of the session was that there was a lot of programming and resources dedicated to combating binge drinking and alcohol abuse. There was nothing about gambling prevention/education and very little research into this. I really could have done a substantial paper/project about gambling among college students with one of my professors, but I was too lazy. I was already overwhelmed trying to balance school and work. I didn't have the time or energy to do a project in my "spare time." All of this is to write that I truly hope there's more research and activities about this now. I can't imagine how many college students are addicted to sports betting and how many are in debt. 

To start, I'm going to delete the FanDuel Faceoff app and unfollow some accounts on Twitter. Then, I need to lead by example and completely stop betting. 

* Though not the point of this post, I'm sure there's a way to delete the apps, download them again in April or May, and cash out, and then delete the apps again.

Sean's Sports Betting

Virginia legalized sports betting in April 2020 with online sportsbooks beginning to accept wagers in January 2021. Since that time, every commercial break on sports talk radio or during any sporting event on television features at least one advertisement from sportsbooks often featuring J.B. Smoove, Jamie Foxx, or Drew Brees. Just before the NFL season started in September, I created an account on one of these online sportsbooks and deposited $100 from money made specifically from this blog. Yes, amazingly, I really have made a little money over the years from this. Based on the amount of time I've spent writing this blog, it's probably the equivalent to about $0.04 per hour. I'm not quitting my day job or even my soccer referee side job to become a "professional" blogger!

Anyway, during this time, I've limited my wagering to the NFL, college football, golf, tennis, the NBA, college basketball, the NHL, the Olympics, and soccer. There was probably a baseball game or two in there too. Maybe "limited" is the wrong word. I realized that I might have a little bit of a gambling problem when I put money on a soccer match in the Cypriot First Division. Did you even know that Cyprus had its own soccer league? Throughout this time, I haven't added any money to my account. In my mind, as long as I don't put any more money into the account, I don't have a problem. This probably isn't true, but that's what I'm going with. Of course, I haven't withdrawn any money from my account either.

When I wrote about my criminal record last fall, I mentioned that I could have been involved with a study about gambling on college campuses. I occasionally think about this like when I'm betting the over on the number of goals in an Ottawa Senators-Detroit Red Wings hockey game. Seriously, I hope there is some really good research out there about the impact of gambling on 18-25 year-olds. 

I do want to share one wager I made recently. Bayern Munich faced RB Salzburg in the second leg of UEFA Champions League round of 16. I placed $4 on Bayern Munich to win, the total goals scored in the game to be over 2.5, and the total corner kicks to be over 8.5. Bayern Munich put up 7 goals (for  Pittsburgh sports fans of a certain age: Chili Goal! Chili Goal! Chili Goal!) and won easily 7-1. In looking at the stats after the game, ESPN showed that there were 9 corner kicks. This made me happy since I would have won about $10. Unfortunately, the sportsbook showed it as a loss. I was confused. I did some research and saw several other websites, including the Bayern Munich website, show 9 corners. However, the UEFA website showed 8 "corners taken," and as I later discovered, that is what my sportsbook used. On the last play of the match, a Salzburg player deflected a Bayern Munich shot out for a corner. Before the kick was taken, the referee blew his whistle to end the game. Technically, there were 9 corners. Technically, there were 8 corners taken. And yes, I spent way too much time researching this and chatting with the sportsbook customer service representative. 

So if betting on the amount of points scored in the MAAC Championship between Monmouth and St. Peters sounds like fun to you, and you live in a state with sports betting (and the sportsbook I use), please let me know. I'm happy to refer you and get a little extra money for my account myself! 

I Don't Understand Gambling Odds

There was an article in Sunday's Washington Post about the teams with the best odds to win the 2015 World Series. The print version includes the over/under wins for each MLB team from Bovada and the World Series odds from the Atlantis sportsbook. Since this is the Washington Post, the Nationals were clearly the focus of the article as the team has the best odds to win the World Series (13-2) and are expected to have the most regular season wins (over/under 93). The odd part, though, is how these sites view the Pirates.

Bovada has the Pirates over/under wins at 85 1/2. After reaching the playoffs over the past two seasons, this is not unexpected. In fact the 85 1/2 is the 7th best in baseball behind the Nats, Dodgers, Cardinals, Angels, Tigers and Red Sox. However, Atlantis has the Pirates odds to win the World Series at 33-1 or tied for 17th best in baseball. Um, what? Look, I understand that the Nationals, Dodgers, and Cardinals all look like more complete teams and will be extremely tough competition for the Pirates. Meanwhile, the Mets (28-1), Mariners (16-1), Cubs (10-1!) and Padres (14-1) all have better odds to win the World Series than the Bucs.

I don't get it.

Sean's Gamblings

You may have noticed a new banner ad on my blog for a sports betting site, MyBookie. As part of our deal, the company gave me some free play money to bet. I've made sports bets with friends over the years and even knew a bookie at college. This bookie, who I made one bet with for the Steelers-Cowboys Super Bowl (I won thanks to the Steelers keeping the game rather close) was also the announcer for the football team and had a weekly radio show where would make statements like "not that I would bet on that." However, I've never used a sports betting site before, so I thought I would share some early thoughts about this venture.

Friday - The Penguins lost against the Rangers on Tuesday 5-0. I figured that they would be rather humiliated by their effort and motivated to defeat the Maple Leafs in Toronto. I was right as the Penguins won 2-1. This betting thing is easy!

Saturday - While I don't follow college football as much as I used to, it seems like LSU never loses consecutive games. They lost a close game against Alabama and were 1-point favorites at a 5-loss Arkansas. I thought this was a good bet. Arkansas won 17-0.

Sunday - I've always wanted to try a parlay bet. In this case, I put up $10 for a chance to win $26 if both the Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints covered the spread. The Carolina Panthers have been awful lately, and Cam Newton is not 100%. I liked Atlanta in this match-up. Meanwhile, the Saints are generally really good at home, and I certainly wasn't sold on Cincinnati particularly since they lost badly against the Browns. Apparently, Vegas agreed with me as New Orleans was favored by 7. While the Falcons did their part by defeating the Panthers in Charlotte, the Saints played horribly (or the Bengals played well). Another loss. Maybe this gambling thing isn't so easy.

Monday - The Steelers are 6-point favorites at Tennessee. They can't play as bad as they did against the Jets, right? Right?

If you want to try your luck, click on the banner ad on the right. The folks from MyBookie even called me when I first registered to welcome me and to answer any questions. Good customer service!

Update: There's a line in Rocky 2 (I believe) where Apollo Creed says that he won, but he didn't beat him. The reference was that he defeated Rocky Balboa in the first Rocky film, but it was by decision and not a knockout. Well, that line also summarizes the Monday Night Football game. The Steelers won (thanks to a 4th quarter comeback), but they didn't cover the 6-point spread. Three straight losses for me.

Hollywood Casino Excursion

Charles Town Races & Slots recently changed its name to Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races. The good news is that this name was prompted by the addition of table games. The bad news is that the Charles Town Races & Slots song appears to have been retired. (Unfortunately, I can’t find this extremely catchy jingle anywhere online.)

We drove to Charles Town, West Virginia on Sunday to check out the new-and-improved casino. Before I get into the casino itself, can I mention the brilliance of West Virginia? You think I’m going to make a joke here, but I’m not. Every car in the parking lot had Virginia and Maryland license plates. I also saw a handful of DC plates and even one from Florida, but I don’t think I saw one West Virginia car. (The employee lot was probably elsewhere.) The Mountain State and the casino itself must make millions and millions of dollars annually from out-of-state residents.



So we entered the casino and found tables for blackjack, Pai Gow, roulette, three card poker, craps and more. This made me happy! As I approached each table though, I was shocked by the minimum bets requirements. $25 for roulette and Pai Gow! $50 for blackjack! Although that was too rich for me, the high minimums didn’t seem to impact others as the tables were packed.

Maybe the high minimums were due to the fact that I visited the casino over the weekend. Nope. A friend visited the casino on Monday and gave me this report:

‎10:00 AM - BlackJack: 2 $25 tables full & 4 $50 tables full. At 11:40, they were going to open 2 other $25 tables @ noon. So, we waited, but then the pit boss came & changed it to $50 just before they opened it. B.S.!!! So, we played a few slot machines & called it a day. Plus, they were doing very loud construction in the same room. Brilliant!

Hollywood Casino doesn’t need to have $5 or $10 minimums. Unlike Las Vegas or Atlantic City where you can walk to the next casino, Hollywood Casino is the destination. If you live in the DC area, you’re driving 60-90 minutes to West Virginia to gamble. There’s no competition and nowhere else to go once you arrive. Well, there is a Sheetz next to the casino, but you can’t gamble there (or can you?). There is a pending vote to open a slots casino in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, but that’s still months if not years away. Plus, no table games. Maybe you can drive to Dover (has anyone been there), but if you want to take a day trip for table games, Hollywood Casino is your only option.

In case you’re wondering, I lost $6 on the final horse race of the day and $10 on slots and that was it.