The sports betting market has been surging over these past few years and seems to be causing more harm than good to those who participate.
It can be fun to place a small wager on a game making it more enjoyable to watch or placing bets with friends and sweating it out together. However, the problem is that some people take sports betting a step too far. Sports betting is like an addiction, once you start it’s very hard to stop and some people dig themselves in very steep holes that are hard to climb out of. One can easily go from tossing a $5 bet on a football game every Sunday to betting $500 on Korean basketball at 6 in the morning. Sports betting as a whole has had many negative impacts, including the following.
Mental Health Issues
A major problem with sports betting is the potential harm to an individual’s mental health. Sports betting can bring out the worst in a person especially those with high blood pressure and anger issues where they can become completely unsafe to be around. It’s common for people to feel guilty about placing a bet but some think about themselves in a negative way for doing so causing low self-esteem and maybe even lack of sleep. Another mental issue from betting is the mood swings a person can develop where the outcome of a certain bet could impact their personality for the rest of the day. When placing bets is no longer just for entertainment is it really worth doing at all?
Players Suspended For Betting on Games
Sports betting has become so addicting across the nation that even pro athletes who are already rich have gotten suspended for betting on sports games. Just last week, Toronto Raptors basketball player Jontay Porter received a lifetime ban from playing in the league because he was caught placing bets against his own team. Porter who is just 24 years of age and playing in his second NBA has completely ruined his future and will miss out on a ton of money due to his poor decisions. Tennessee Titans wide receiver Calvin Ridley was suspended for the entire 2022 season for betting on other NFL teams during the 2021 season while he was on the non-football illness list. He was able to return to football the next year since he did not bet on games he had an impact on. However, former MLB great Pete Rose received a lifetime ban from the sport and is not eligible for the hall of fame after he placed multiple bets on the Cincinnati Reds over the years 1985 to 1987 because he both played for and managed the team during that time. If multi-million dollar athletes can’t restrain themselves from illegally sports betting and risking their careers, most people who do it for a living will not be able to either.
The Books Always Win
The reason that sportsbooks have the amount of money that they do is because they always win in the end. As a bettor, the odds are not in your favor and the longer that you continue to press your luck in sports betting, the worse it probably will get. Some people end in a net positive betting but in the grand scheme of things, the vast majority of bettors lose because in the end the house always wins. Sports betting apps like Fanduel, DraftKings, Bet365, etc do not care about you and will do what they can to take as much of your money as possible. With the odds stacked against you and the sportsbooks knowing all the tricks and inside information is betting even worth it?
