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.

My 12 Year Old Visited OnlyFans

As I was out running an errand on Wednesday, I checked my email and received the following message from Google:

Subject: OnlyFans.com now has access to The Moose's Google Account

Message: The Moose signed in to OnlyFans.com with their Google Account. OnlyFans.com now has access to some of The Moose's Google Account data, including:

* See your primary Google Account email address

* See your personal info, including any personal info you've made publicly available

* Associate you with your personal info on Google.

OnlyFans is a "subscription social platform revolutionising creator and fan connections." While that sounds innocent enough, there's a lot of X-rated material on this site. Certainly not appropriate for a 12 year old! 

I instantly emailed my son as soon as I received the message.

The subject of the email was "What are you doing," and in my mind I sounded like Dwight from The Office.

Me: Why is onlyfans.com attached to your Gmail account.

The Moose: That's weird.

Me: What are you clicking on that you would attach to your email/Google account?

The Moose: I have no idea.

I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt since I really don't believe that he was searching for X-rated content. I really think he's too innocent for this. I mean, he wanted to order a "Grilled Cheese" salad for dinner last night off the "grown up" menu, and I had to tell him that it was a Grilled CHICKEN sandwich. Plus, he was in the same room as his younger brothers at the time he was online. 

I checked his browser history and did see onlyfans.com listed. I don't know why or how he even heard of it. My theory is that he was searching for some fantasy football draft advice and came across someone who was offering suggestions on their paid OnlyFans site. Just before that, he was looking at some information about a musician, and maybe he visited OnlyFans because the artist has a page. I really hope one of these two theories are accurate! 

Pirates Won! (In My Dream)

I rarely remember my dreams, but this one was somewhat odd and certainly topical, so I wanted to share what should have happened in last night's Pittsburgh Pirates-St. Louis Cardinals playoff game. Please note that all of this truly did occur in my dream, so feel free to provide your dream analysis in the comments section below.

With the Cardinals up 6-1, the Pirates started getting runners on base and scoring runs. The Cardinals kept pitcher Adam Wainwright in the game too long until finally calling their bullpen and bringing Angela from The Office into the game. She had a great fastball, but couldn't seem throw a strike.

With the bases loaded and the Pirates down 6-5, the team brought in pinch hitter, Emeka Okafor. Why the 6' 10" Washington Wizards basketball player was on the Pirates makes as much sense as Angela from The Office being on the Cardinals. Anyway, Okafor hit a ground-rule double that should have been a home run. Since baseball has instant replay for home runs, I have no idea why this was not reviewed.

In the bottom of the 9th, the Pirates brought in Jason Isringhausen to finish the game. Isringhausen was the Cardinals closer for several years, but retired from baseball after the 2012 season and hasn't played for the Cardinals since 2008. He also never played for the Pirates.

I missed seeing Isringhausen retire the Cardinals in order as well as part of the top of the 9th inning since I was watching the game via DVR. Of course, the DVR acted like an old VCR where I would have to press stop to fast-forward and rewind with no idea where it would land when I pressed play again.

As the Pirates celebrated, Howard Stern sang "We Are The Champions" but in a serious manner and not in any type of ironic way. For some reason, the television also showed Jon Stewart several times while dressed in a suit like on The Daily Show set. Apparently, he was part of the Pirates organization and made the decision to have Okafor pinch hit.

Oh, despite playing the Cardinals, this was a World Series victory and not the divisional round series win.

I should mention that I watched this game with a housekeeper that I've never met and my mother-in-law. I also remember that I wanted to see the reaction to the Pirates win on Twitter.

So there you have it! While the game really went like this (and other accounts too), I like the version that occurred in my dream better.

Random Questions

What actor, who has never been nominated for an Academy Award, has the highest grossing films? In case this isn't clear, let's take Will Smith for example. His films (Men in Black, Independence Day, Bad Boys, etc.) have grossed approximately $900 trillion dollars. Of course, Smith got an Oscar nomination for Ali, so he's out of the competition. I have no idea of the answer to this question, but I have some ideas.

What is the top seed in girl scout cookies?

Is there a better lollipop than Blow Pops?

Why is Tuesday always the worst day for mail?

Do they have Long John Silver's restaurants in any upscale neighborhoods? For example, do they have a LJS in Beverly Hills?

Will you watch The Office's finale on Thursday night?

Despite the Pirates extra inning win last night on a Cutch walk off home run, the Pirates are 13-209 against the Brewers since the Randall Simon incident. (This record may not be accurate.) It's the Sausage Curse! The only way to break the curse is for Ryan Braun to take out Cheese Chester. How can we get this to happen?

I guess you could consider this a Trivia Wednesday. Leave your answers in the comments section below.

Great Mustaches In History: Movember Rolls On

President Skroob


Stanley


Wilford Brimley


Phil Garner


Mario


Sean


My mustache will only be around for another week, so I hope that you consider donating to Movember by clicking on this link. The donations are tax deductible and go to a great cause. In addition, thanks to the folks who have already contributed!