A few decades back my teenage son and I approached Las Vegas at night while traveling south on Interstate 15. When the skyline of the city began sparkling into view, the kid said, “Wow. Think of all the money people have made there!” This was a perfect tease for my response: “Dude, everything you see there was paid for by losers.”
The same is true for online sports betting, only more so. How? Soon as you do well, they cut you off. Sources:
- Won and done? Sportsbooks banning the smart money. By @DavidPurdum in ESPN
- Sports Betting Companies Weed Out Winners. Gamblers Want to Know Why. By Katherine Sayre in The Wall Street Journal
- Sportsbooks seem to be the worst losers of them all. By Phil Mushnick in The New York Post
- ‘Very disappointing to me’: Sports betting companies balk at discussing limits on bettors
By Colin A. Young in New England Public Media - In Episode 5 and Episode 6 of Michael Lewis‘ Against the Rules podcast series on sports gambling, producer Lydia Jean Kott made a bunch of bad bets that won her the favor of sportsbooks (FanDuel and DraftKings), and then found herself cut off after she started winning (as a “mule” for a skilled sports gambler).
Also interesting: While the online sportsbook algorithms are good at spotting gamblers who are smarter than the house, they aren’t so good at spotting and getting help for problem gamblers, which the sportsbook apps are all but (or actually) designed to create—especially out of young people who are quick to rationalize the game of losing money as a form of fun.
In Why Sportsbooks Limit Your Bets (And How to Avoid It), Outlier excuses the practice:
Sportsbooks are businesses, and like any business, their primary goal is to make a profit. When a bettor consistently wins, they are essentially taking money from the sportsbook’s bottom line. To mitigate this risk, sportsbooks implement limits on the accounts of profitable bettors. The aim is to encourage more casual, recreational bettors, who are less likely to have an edge and more likely to contribute to the sportsbook’s revenue.
Translation: They want people who throw their money away.
I could go on, but instead suggest you dig those two episodes of Against the Rules.
Oh, and here’s a bet: a generation or few from now (though hopefully sooner), we’ll look back on sports gambling everywhere the same way we look back today on smoking and drunk driving everywhere.
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