I have a friend, a doctor and former NFL football player, who has a podcast about our favorite college team. A while back, he began aggressively arguing in favor of legalized sports betting at the same time he started running paid ads from sports betting companies. He's a very moral man, but has a couple of blind spots: I think he thinks that as gambling is not a medical addiction it must not really be harmful. Also, he thinks any opposition to gambling must be driven by right-wing moralism and fundamentalism that he abhors.
I emailed him a couple of times to point out the ethical problem but he ignored me. It bothers me enough that I no longer listen to the podcast. It's as disturbing to me as it would be if my doctor friend had become a paid shill for the tobacco industry.
I like how Saagar approaches this. His critique focuses on real-world harms and doesn't use moralistic or religious arguments. I think a lot of smart people completely failed to anticipate how addictive and harmful legalized internet gambling would be.
I have a friend, a doctor and former NFL football player, who has a podcast about our favorite college team. A while back, he began aggressively arguing in favor of legalized sports betting at the same time he started running paid ads from sports betting companies. He's a very moral man, but has a couple of blind spots: I think he thinks that as gambling is not a medical addiction it must not really be harmful. Also, he thinks any opposition to gambling must be driven by right-wing moralism and fundamentalism that he abhors.
I emailed him a couple of times to point out the ethical problem but he ignored me. It bothers me enough that I no longer listen to the podcast. It's as disturbing to me as it would be if my doctor friend had become a paid shill for the tobacco industry.
I like how Saagar approaches this. His critique focuses on real-world harms and doesn't use moralistic or religious arguments. I think a lot of smart people completely failed to anticipate how addictive and harmful legalized internet gambling would be.