Now that sports gambling has been legalized, we are learning about the problems that have occurred as a direct result of betting In addition to the growing concerns around gambling addiction, and players illegally throwing games to win bets, one new issue gaining attention centers around player safety and the related harassment that comes with “not coming through” in a game to win a gambler’s prop bet. Social media has made it easy today to locate and disparage players — including college players, and kids even younger — resulting in very serious concerns around player safety. Think about that for a moment, a player goes out and tries his best, comes up short, then has to later deal with an onslaught of social media posts (including direct threats) because the player failed to help a gambler win money on a bet.
The dark side of sports gambling
Prior to legalized sports betting, student athletes never worried about how their on-field performance impacted sports gamblers who bet on their success — mostly because they never knew it was happening. When sports betting was illegal, the gambling action was discrete, and players just played. There was also no internet for angry gamblers to track down players who performed poorly, again allowing student athletes to simply play their sport. All that has changed today, and it has left under-performing student athletes in the cross hairs of upset gamblers.
Now that sports betting is legal, and the internet allows us to more directly interface with one another, student athletes are feeling the heat with respect to how their performance directly, fiscally impacts others. Proposition bets, or prop bets, are bets on specific events, statistics, or occurrences within a game that do not directly relate to the final outcome. In theory, a college athlete may find harsh criticism, or possibly even experience harm, as a result of both losing the game, as well as falling short individually on a prop bet (i.e. how many points he was expected to score). Think about that for a moment. A college athlete signs up to simply play a sport, and now he or she has to worry about how the team’s success impacts gamblers, and even worse, if they are in danger for not producing.
While the gambling community may be thrilled that you can bet on sports anywhere these days, this is not at all what athletes signed up for when they chose to play sports. No athlete wants to be heckled on campus because they fell short on a prop bet. No athlete wants to open their social media and immediately read threats posted by bitter fans who just lost money on the athlete. And no athlete wants to take on even more responsibility in their busy lives by feeling beholden to make money for sports gamblers.
Final thoughts
While many people cheered when sports betting became legal, since then we have witnessed many concerning things happen as a direct result. We have seen a dramatic increase in gambling addiction, gambling-related financial debt, athletes throwing games to win money, and most recently athletes facing direct threats for not helping gamblers win prop bets. When you throw in all the annoying advertisements, in-stadium signage, and sportscasters compromising the viewing experience by rambling on about the latest odds, you really have to wonder if this legalized gambling thing is a net positive? Or has sports betting created a host of new problems, including gambling addiction, compromised competitive integrity, a distorted fan experience, and most concerning of all, threats to player safety?
drstankovich.com
