Strongly agree and it seems sad to ruin the sportsmanship that used to be part of college sports. Ever since Name Image Likeness was allowed the predominant use of that has been for betting. And yes colleges are going all in on it because to me as more revenue on their pockets
Gambling is an activity undertaken by many Australians. In 2022, 72.8% of Australian adults gambled within the previous 12 months (80.5% for men and 66.2% for women) and 38% of Australian adults gambled at least once per week (48% for men and 28% for women).
Once the market for males is saturated I believe they will target women next for slick advertising just like happened with cigarettes around the 1920s.
I see a LOT of ads for sports betting anytime I do anything without an ad blocker. I bet if I clicked one I would see even more. They also seem to be really common on tv, or at least on the tv news in public places. It is troubling that children aren’t being protected from seeing this
I agree with Szdfan. Gambling is a big societal I'll, one that causes the poor to become poorer, while others receive unjust and unearned wealth. The Bible talks about this a lot, especially in the gospel and in the prophets that foretold the need for the gospel.
I also agree that the Bible doesn't really address gambling directly.
The Bible does directly address economic practices that lead to the oppression of the poor. God speaks about usury a great deal, condemning it in the strongest terms. Jesus addresses it directly. Yet there are Anabaptists who don't mind having an interest-earning bank account, or a retirement account, or owning rental properties or AirBnbs, or lending out land and farm equipment at a profit.
These are the things God hates. Yes, I think in our wisdom we can recognize the I'll effects of gambling and lovingly pull our brothers and sisters away from it. But oughtn't we all the more to condemn that which God says he despises directly?
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The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand we are obliged to act accordingly.
-Søren Kierkegaard
Praxis+Theodicy wrote: ↑Mon Dec 23, 2024 7:59 am
I agree with Szdfan. Gambling is a big societal I'll, one that causes the poor to become poorer, while others receive unjust and unearned wealth. The Bible talks about this a lot, especially in the gospel and in the prophets that foretold the need for the gospel.
I also agree that the Bible doesn't really address gambling directly.
The Bible does directly address economic practices that lead to the oppression of the poor. God speaks about usury a great deal, condemning it in the strongest terms. Jesus addresses it directly. Yet there are Anabaptists who don't mind having an interest-earning bank account, or a retirement account, or owning rental properties or AirBnbs, or lending out land and farm equipment at a profit.
These are the things God hates. Yes, I think in our wisdom we can recognize the I'll effects of gambling and lovingly pull our brothers and sisters away from it. But oughtn't we all the more to condemn that which God says he despises directly?
P+D, I strongly agree, but it seems like we should focus on this area as I am already hearing of some Anabaptist youth falling into struggles in this area.
I do think it would be good (in another thread) to discuss usury,interest retirement funds and so forth.
JohnH wrote: ↑Mon Dec 23, 2024 7:54 am
Strongly agree and it seems sad to ruin the sportsmanship that used to be part of college sports. Ever since Name Image Likeness was allowed the predominant use of that has been for betting. And yes colleges are going all in on it because to me as more revenue on their pockets
And it is all 100% the fault of the NCAA which is a horrible organization. For decades they virulently resisted any type of revenue sharing with student athletes who were making the universities billions of dollars. A kid working at the university library or cafeteria could earn money and non-athletes could have any side jobs they wanted. But not athletes, the majority of whom come from poor backgrounds and often poverty. It was essentially a modern day plantation economy where everyone else at the university profited hugely from their efforts and labor and they got nothing.
When courts finally intervened they were forced to do so against a kicking and screaming NCAA and so here we are with basically anarchy. Had the NCAA come up with its own reasonable plan for compensating athletes in some reasonable manner the courts would likely have not intervened and thrown the door wide open.
The situation with sports betting is essentially the same. Congress resisted any efforts to put in any common sense regulation and once state prohibitions started to crumble we are now in what is essentially an unregulated wasteland of online sports betting. And now the sports betting industry is growing so fast it will have so much clout that will be very difficult to regulate in the future.
The lesson here is that sometimes accommodating things through regulation is better than just releasing the wolves.
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A fool can throw out more questions than a wise man can answer. -RZehr
mike wrote: ↑Mon Dec 23, 2024 7:50 am
I don't understand the appeal of gambling.
It is an addiction… that generates a lot of profit for the person taking the bets…
If you are familiar with people using alcohol drugs or tobacco perhaps they would help it be easier to understand the appeal of it?
I honestly expect online sports betting (and other forms of online betting like online poker) is going to be a bigger curse on people and families than online porn. Porn has been around forever but online sports betting is new. Churches (and Anabaptists) are pretty good about tackling porn. The curse of online gambling is going to be a whole new thing and I expect Anabaptists won’t be immune.
And as with porn, it is mostly going to be men that bring ruin upon themselves and their families.
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A fool can throw out more questions than a wise man can answer. -RZehr
mike wrote: ↑Mon Dec 23, 2024 7:50 am
I don't understand the appeal of gambling.
It is an addiction… that generates a lot of profit for the person taking the bets…
If you are familiar with people using alcohol drugs or tobacco perhaps they would help it be easier to understand the appeal of it?
I honestly expect online sports betting (and other forms of online betting like online poker) is going to be a bigger curse on people and families than online porn. Porn has been around forever but online sports betting is new. Churches (and Anabaptists) are pretty good about tackling porn. The curse of online gambling is going to be a whole new thing and I expect Anabaptists won’t be immune.
And as with porn, it is mostly going to be men that bring ruin upon themselves and their families.
Could be, although anecdotally the only situation I've heard about in the last two years was a wife who gambled away all the family's available cash plus the line of credit before her husband discovered what was going on.
It is an addiction… that generates a lot of profit for the person taking the bets…
If you are familiar with people using alcohol drugs or tobacco perhaps they would help it be easier to understand the appeal of it?
I honestly expect online sports betting (and other forms of online betting like online poker) is going to be a bigger curse on people and families than online porn. Porn has been around forever but online sports betting is new. Churches (and Anabaptists) are pretty good about tackling porn. The curse of online gambling is going to be a whole new thing and I expect Anabaptists won’t be immune.
And as with porn, it is mostly going to be men that bring ruin upon themselves and their families.
Could be, although anecdotally the only situation I've heard about in the last two years was a wife who gambled away all the family's available cash plus the line of credit before her husband discovered what was going on.
I’m not saying ONLY men.
But I think it is safe to say that the majority of people who get addicting to porn and gambling are men. Is that not the case? I’m too lazy to look up the actual statistics but that is my impression.
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A fool can throw out more questions than a wise man can answer. -RZehr
I don’t like gambling not even the state lottery tickets that supposedly support schools. I don’t like casinos and they seem to be growing in number with the new one in Danville Va that’s run by the Cherokee tribe. Hollywood glamorizes it in movies. The human cost with prostitution and organized crime is horrible. We have neighbors a couple streets over who moved here from NJ and they sing the praises of casinos and how they lowered taxes to help the schools blah blah blah. So I asked them up front if it’s so wonderful why did you move here? Oh crime got bad they said. I don’t think they ever made the connection that the crime got bad because of the casinos. Like has already been mentioned I don’t like gambling even raffle tickets because it’s a bad witness to our children and other adults.
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Free Will Baptist <-> Anabaptist
”Try hard not to offend. Try harder not to be offended.” Robert Martz
I honestly expect online sports betting (and other forms of online betting like online poker) is going to be a bigger curse on people and families than online porn. Porn has been around forever but online sports betting is new. Churches (and Anabaptists) are pretty good about tackling porn. The curse of online gambling is going to be a whole new thing and I expect Anabaptists won’t be immune.
And as with porn, it is mostly going to be men that bring ruin upon themselves and their families.
Could be, although anecdotally the only situation I've heard about in the last two years was a wife who gambled away all the family's available cash plus the line of credit before her husband discovered what was going on.
I’m not saying ONLY men.
But I think it is safe to say that the majority of people who get addicting to porn and gambling are men. Is that not the case? I’m too lazy to look up the actual statistics but that is my impression.
