Government is the Gambling Addict
Nevada Gaming Control rules force Las Vegas sports books to be old fuddy-duddys when it comes to booking bets on the Super Bowl. Jay Kornegay, the executive vice president of race and sports operations at Westgate Resorts told the New York Times, “Customers and even some of our own executives are unaware we can’t do them. So we have to tell them, and they’re like, ‘Oh, really? That’s too bad.’”
The “them” he is referring to are bets involving Taylor Swift. These truly are bets, as opposed to gambling. Murray Rothbard made the distinction. “There is a distinction between gambling and betting. Gambling refers to wagering on events of class probability, such as throws of dice, where there is no knowledge of the unique event,” wrote Rothbard. “Betting refers to wagering on [a] unique event about which both parties to the bet know something — such as a horse race or a Presidential election. In either case, however, the wagerer is creating a new risk or uncertainty.”
Offshore bookies like BetOnline.ag and Bet U.S. have dozens of ways to bet Ms. Swift. BetOnline.ag is offering 89 proposition bets, a reference to her album “1989.” The primary color for her top being red is a -250 favorite. The color of her lipstick being red is a prohibitive favorite at -1500.
The color of her outfit when she steps off her plane is a more unsettled matter. Decent odds can be had on red or black, while other colors start at +500 (5-1). A bet she wears one of those dorky foam fingers during the game pays +1000 (10-1).
“If it’s something that’s going to attract some attention and we can make legitimate odds on it, there’s a good chance that we’re going to do it,” said Tim Williams, the director of public affairs for Bet U.S. He added: “We expect to see as much interest, if not more interest, in all of these Taylor Swift bets compared to bets related to the halftime show, and that’s really unprecedented.”
One of these days state governments will let us take the plunge on whether Taylor Swift will cry if the Chiefs lose (or something as crazy).
Lionel Laurent wrote for Bloomberg, “Welcome to the tip of a global gambling iceberg, as cash-strapped governments everywhere find it harder to resist the lure of an increasingly gamified, tech-savvy industry that brings in precious tax revenue — $1.6 billion in two years for the state of New York alone.”
Laurent continued, “ Today’s iPhone-toting punters may be a world away from the portrayal of Paul Newman’s broken-thumbed hustler Fast Eddie, but the risk of addiction is rising among young men (and it is mostly men) who don’t even need to get dressed or leave the house to place a bet.”
Risk of addiction? Governments don’t care. Whatever it takes to fill government coffers.
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