The dangerous future of gambling

March 11 marked the beginning of a pandemic for all of us. It wasn’t even close to the beginning. But for those of us who were well, whose kids were still in school, whose employers still needed us every day at work, and who had only heard of the radio coronavirus driving kids to school like the unbelieving protagonist in the zombie movie that Wednesday night, we really noticed what was happening in our lives at the bingo bonus.

As the Utah Jazz prepared to face the Oklahoma City Thunder, news that the game would be canceled when Utah’s Rudy Gobert tested the virus positive. By 9:30 p.m., the NBA had announced a season-long suspension. Other sports, including the NHL and NCAA, which canceled the upcoming March Madness Tournament, said they were considering following. Nearly every sporting event in the world was canceled or postponed over the next two days, including Thursday night’s Lakers game and the rest of the Lakers season. I checked the status of my big future bets that the Lakers won over 50 games this season from my sports betting account. The situation was at rest. I focused on the Lakers ’current record of 49 wins.

I had nearly $ 1,000 of NBA potential bets on the line that were now in jeopardy. I had hoped to be able to fund a couple of them, and the end of the season would be the same as being able to pay a down payment on the house my wife and I had been looking at. We had invested money in deposits and investments for years and counted the days we could afford to stop renting and join the importer. In an effort to gain his respect, or at least improve tolerance in my gambling hobbies, I praised him for my victories contributing, albeit in a small way, to this opportunity. On that side, I felt my progress. But now there is a different layer.

We prepared for quarantine

We prepared for quarantine as the weekend progressed. I stocked supplies. Zoom is loaded. I was attached to a television. We sent text messages to our friends and family furiously. However, my passionate messages were not the same as my wife. One of my friends, a professional gambler and single mother, wrote to me that if casinos close, she is likely to go bankrupt without money and unable to claim unemployment benefits. Rufus Peabody and Spanky, two professional sports bookmakers who had both attended the Sloan Sports Analytics conference, reported being ill. (Rufus later tested a positive coronavirus; Spanky was sure he had it, but had quarantined himself because of the testing centers.) And the guy who ran the poker game I went to in the back room of the local pool hall told me he was good and asked if he went to the game on Saturday night . I wrote back that I didn’t think it was a good idea. In response, he sent me a picture of a package of latex gloves and hand cleaners. The text read “If Resorts Play, We Call” online casino.

Gambling is a dream come true for most of us, especially non-sharp gamers. It’s a bit of betting and winning. It is an opportunity that is not based on merit, but on happiness, on the gods who spray us with the happiness we need for the hour we need. It is irrational, but so is America.

The closest legal poker room to New York is the Resorts World Catskills in Monticello, New York, and it remained open on Saturday, as did almost every casino in the United States. Las Vegas Wynn, meanwhile, revealed it will close next Tuesday and become the first Nevada casino. By Monday, almost every commercial casino in the United States would have followed suit, including Resorts World.

According to almost all reports, the coronavirus can have a devastating human charge. It is possible that tens of millions of people would be contaminated. Hundreds of millions of people could be lost. Only those who are directly infected with the virus are included in these figures. The indirect effects of an economic toll can also be fatal. Millions of people lose their jobs and health care with them. Poverty is on the rise. On March 21, the Governor of the Central Bank of St. Louis estimated that unemployment could rise to 30 percent and GDP could fall by 50 percent. Such are the foreign forecasts. If they materialize and the epidemic is not limited to the point where economic activity continues, they have a good chance and the country will face a catastrophe similar to the Great Depression.

Gambling in the United States grew the fastest during the Great Depression, ironically. Legalized gambling has become a popular way for states to raise much-needed tax revenue.