The new gambling epidemic: sports betting, crypto, online casinos

[Lyubov]

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/08/23/business/sports-gambling-risk-young-men
 

Has anyone noticed how rampant sports betting and crypto betting has become among gen z and gen alpha guys? ESPN and UFC has marketed this shit to their viewers so much. It used to be illegal to gamble like this and you definitely couldn’t advertise it. Now huge brands, large social media accounts are marketing draft kings and similar shit.

This is absolutely disgusting. Not only can young guys not get laid in the USA anymore but every single brand and vice looking to scam them are like vultures, just waiting to catch them with fear based hooks and easy dopamine.

There’s even a trend where guys who work minimum wage jobs will film themselves gambling their entire days earning on a blackjack hand.

Discuss this problem and share any information on this new wave of gambling addiction. 

Edited Monday at 12:59 PM by Lyubov

[Daniel Balan]

This is sad. In the future we should ban gambling and betting all together for people who are working minimum wage. Only millionaires should be allowed to gambe. 

[Jehovah increases]

Human greed and stupidity go hand in hand and knows no bounds. That's crazy stuff, filming themselves whilst gambling their whole day's earnings sounds like it is becoming another trend, sigh.

Edited Monday at 02:26 PM by Jehovah increases

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

I think there are certain traits such as modesty and general inteligence which, if you aren't raised to have both in sufficient ammounts, you'll be the exact target audience for gambling. There are some statistics that support your claim that rates of gambling have increased over the last years and decades, but I'd guess it has more to do with the increased availability, not really due to change of culture or human nature

[Joshe]

My state (SC) runs a state lottery. Just saw a TV commercial the other day where a good ole boy walks into a mom and pop gas station and starts friendly banter with the clerk, where the customer and clerk are bantering over the state's prominent football team rival - clerk wearing a Clemson hat and customer wearing a Gamecocks hat. After the banter, the customer tells the clerk to give him a Clemson scratch-off ticket. lol 

It was designed to normalize a financially harmful behavior by wrapping it in community identity and working-class authenticity. Just a good ole friendly, hard-working, blue-collar South Carolinian on his way to work, stopping in for his morning coffee, doing what he does everyday - grabbing a scratch-off ticket.

I see evolution at play. Those who continuously squander their survival resources (time, energy, money) are not fit for the current survival landscape. The more they chase dopamine, the more unfit they are for modern survival. It might take hundreds or even thousands of years before the collective gains enough consciousness to grow out of this. In the meantime, you'd have to rely on government to patch these exploits, because the individuals are largely not capable.

When you're basically asleep - operating on robot-like autopilot - you can only hope that your environment doesn't cater to and nurture exploits, but that's not the world we live in, so most will be exploited. Without the independent ability (consciousness) to patch these exploits, their survival resources are unconsciously transferred to the exploiters, which daily increases the victim's karmic debt, as they are unconsciously complicit in the scheme. 

It seems the wolves are always one step ahead of the sheep. This is why life is serious. We need the sheep to not be sheep anymore. That's all I ever really wanted - for people to be liberated from exploitation, but awareness cannot be forced. This is our plight. 

Edited Monday at 05:41 PM by Joshe

[Twentyfirst]

It's part of the convenience of technology. Anyone can order an uber but anyone can gamble their life savings 

Have you ever met hardcore gamblers? They are terrible. Just let them destroy themselves while you get rich doing your own projects