Sports gambling

Friday

Peter J. Hasson

Rein in the rainmakers: gambling apps aren’t going anywhere

"I've been losing all my money sports betting, so I’m selling my car at CarMax so I can get some money and bet on tonight’s Cowboys-Bengals Monday Night Football game,” TikTokker ReeceMoneyBets told his 9,000 followers in early December, gesturing to a faux-gold Ford in the CarMax lot. “They just gave me $3,000, and I know I shouldn’t do this, but I’m betting it tonight on Monday Night Football.” He bet his car on a same-game parlay — all his bets needed to hit in order for him to win — that included the Bengals’ Ja’Marr Chase getting fifty receiving yards, Bengals QB Joe Burrow throwing two passing touchdowns and Cowboys QB Cooper Rush notching 200 passing yards. “Easiest bet ever...

gambling

Friday

Kevin Cook

Football is now going hog-wild for legal betting

A new football season has fans reaching for their wallets and e-wallets. Americans now bet more than $100 billion a year on the NFL through legal sportsbooks like FanDuel and DraftKings. Illegal gambling adds billions more. According to the American Gaming Association, 73.5 million bettors will make an NFL wager this year. Fifty million of us have skin in the game thanks to fantasy football teams that pay off in cash and bragging rights. Until recently, the men who run pro sports pretended that fans loved the Lions, Bengals and Bears out of sheer team spirit and a love of tailgating.

betting

Sunday

Neal Pollack

The unstoppable march of the gambling giants

There’s an old adage in the gambling business: “You never hear anyone say ‘I used to be a bookie but then I went broke.’” So if you’re betting on the DraftKings sportsbook app going under soon, even though the company lost $242 million in the fourth fiscal quarter of last year, you’re as big a sucker as the people who think they’re going to get rich by hitting a ten-team parlay. The company brought in $855 million in revenue in the same time period, up 81 percent from the previous quarter, and increased its user base to 2.6 million, up 31 percent. It only lost money because it spent a fortune on advertising and promotions, which, given the other numbers, have clearly been successful.

gambling