We're all Caesars now.

[rsvman]

I'm not a big sports gambler, but i think part of the allure for casual betters is turning games you don't care about into games you do care about.

IMHO, if you have to bet on a game in order to make it interesting, that means you should probably be doing something else with your time other than watching the game.

[brevity]

Never saw the allure of sports gambling, beyond brackets. Games I care about are stressful enough without money being lost.

I'm not a gambler, but I've watched the first two days of the NCAA Tournament in a Las Vegas casino, and it's an experience worth having. The sports book becomes a sports bar on steroids, with way more team neutrality and probably better and quicker food options. Some casinos deal with the overflow by setting aside conference rooms filled with big screen TVs and small gambling concession counters, so you can place your bets right there, if you're into that. This is often a smoke-free alternative.

A bit of news today that seems relevant here: Las Vegas is hosting the 2028 Final Four.

For the first time, the Final Four is headed to Las Vegas, where wagering on the NCAA tournament has long been a staple of March Madness revelry, after the NCAA awarded the men's national semifinals and championship game to Allegiant Stadium for the 2027-28 season.

The NCAA also announced Tuesday that Ford Field in Detroit would host the Final Four in 2027, Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis would get the 2029 event and AT&T Stadium in Dallas would have the 2030 event.

[Reilly]

Wagering is not, in itself, morally unacceptable in the Catholic Church:

"Games of chance (card games, etc.) or wagers are not in themselves contrary to justice. They become morally unacceptable when they deprive someone of what is necessary to provide for his needs and those of others. The passion for gambling risks becoming an enslavement. Unfair wagers and cheating at games constitute grave matter, unless the damage inflicted is so slight that the one who suffers it cannot reasonably consider it significant."

https://www.usccb.org/sites/default/...catechism/582/

I gather other religions take a dimmer view.

[OldPhiKap]

Wagering is not, in itself, morally unacceptable in the Catholic Church:

"Games of chance (card games, etc.) or wagers are not in themselves contrary to justice. They become morally unacceptable when they deprive someone of what is necessary to provide for his needs and those of others. The passion for gambling risks becoming an enslavement. Unfair wagers and cheating at games constitute grave matter, unless the damage inflicted is so slight that the one who suffers it cannot reasonably consider it significant."

As they say in my church, “Bingo!”

[rsvman]

Wagering is not, in itself, morally unacceptable in the Catholic Church:

"Games of chance (card games, etc.) or wagers are not in themselves contrary to justice. They become morally unacceptable when they deprive someone of what is necessary to provide for his needs and those of others. The passion for gambling risks becoming an enslavement. Unfair wagers and cheating at games constitute grave matter, unless the damage inflicted is so slight that the one who suffers it cannot reasonably consider it significant."

https://www.usccb.org/sites/default/...catechism/582/

I gather other religions take a dimmer view.

I can vouch for the fact that the LDS Church absolutely frowns on gambling of any kind. When I was kid, some of the leaders actually argued against card games in general, although I am sure the reason was that they thought playing cards would almost inevitably lead to gambling.

They also discourage buying lottery tickets, which they also consider a form of gambling. I feel like when you gamble you at least have a chance to win, so the lottery seems fundamentally different to me. Feels more like just throwing money away.

[Indoor66]

I can vouch for the fact that the LDS Church absolutely frowns on gambling of any kind. When I was kid, some of the leaders actually argued against card games in general, although I am sure the reason was that they thought playing cards would almost inevitably lead to gambling.

They also discourage buying lottery tickets, which they also consider a form of gambling. I feel like when you gamble you at least have a chance to win, so the lottery seems fundamentally different to me. Feels more like just throwing money away.

Unless you win.

[DevilHorse]

I can vouch for the fact that the LDS Church absolutely frowns on gambling of any kind. When I was kid, some of the leaders actually argued against card games in general, although I am sure the reason was that they thought playing cards would almost inevitably lead to gambling.

They also discourage buying lottery tickets, which they also consider a form of gambling. I feel like when you gamble you at least have a chance to win, so the lottery seems fundamentally different to me. Feels more like just throwing money away.

Risk/Reward teaches math skills! One of my earliest gambling related calculations was to execute a calculation that demonstrated pari-mutual wagering payouts for W/P/S pools. I took a probability and statistics class in High School that spent a lot of time on various card and dice games; educational. One HS math teacher (not mine) used to spend his summers at Saratoga; I think he was single and there was no information on whether he won.

Unfortunately, unlike many other forms of gambling, the take-out/overhead of Lotto's is a poor choice of your gambling dollar.

Larry
DevilHorse

[budwom]

Along the lines of "you can bet on anything," I was at a big Thanksgiving dinner where one young lad had evidently placed a decent sized bet on how many sacks would occur during the game...his father gave him severe crap about it all day long.

[Blue KevIL]

Years back, I had a wise Accounting professor who referred to gambling & lotteries as The Math Tax.