{"id":139,"date":"2023-03-15T09:56:01","date_gmt":"2023-03-15T09:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/designsdaddydev.com\/sharpedgepicks\/?p=139"},"modified":"2023-03-17T19:58:23","modified_gmt":"2023-03-17T19:58:23","slug":"responsible-gambling-issue-in-north-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/designsdaddydev.com\/sharpedgepicks\/responsible-gambling-issue-in-north-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Responsible Gambling Issue in North America"},"content":{"rendered":"
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North America has a responsible gambling problem.\u00a0\u00a0 Increased sports-betting is going to make it much worse.\u00a0 I just came back from the ICRG Conference on Addiction and Responsible Gambling held in Las Vegas and I blame academics, regulators, and corporations for the problems.<\/p>\n

The primary issue is talk of \u201cresponsible, sustainable gambling\u201d is nice, but achieving it, like achieving environmental sustainability is difficult and costs lots of money.\u00a0\u00a0 Whenever it\u2019s easy to pay lip-service and hard to accomplish something, researchers, bureaucrats and opportunistic companies benefit, and the people with the actual problems suffer.<\/p>\n

On the research front, I heard a leading academic explain that a \u201cbig win\u201d was defined as a 10x payout on your sports bet.\u00a0\u00a0 That type of win, early in your betting career could lead to problem gambling.\u00a0\u00a0 As a sports betting expert (see bio below this article for proof) I wonder if this academic understands bettors and parlays.\u00a0\u00a0 For example, if a new casual bettor were to bet fifteen different four team parlays over a weekend, each paying 12x their money, they\u2019d achieve the academics \u201c10x payout\u201d on a bet, yet lose money on the weekend \u2013 would this be a \u201cbig win\u201d?\u00a0\u00a0 The divide between university research and reality is a problem.<\/p>\n

But the biggest problem is that regulators have no sports-betting experience and defer to operators who are shrewd and out to maximize profits.\u00a0\u00a0 Regulators do not hire sports-betting experts.\u00a0\u00a0 Famed Las Vegas linemaker Roxborough use to say that sharp bettors are smarter than the best operators, but even the dumbest operators were smarter than regulators.\u00a0 Many regulators in the gaming space prohibit their employees from gambling in any form, thus ensuring they are coming into the gaming business with zero real world experience on the topics they are regulating.\u00a0 They then rely on savvy operators for advice and guidance.\u00a0\u00a0 Operators spend big money on a VP of Responsible Gambling like corporations who have fifty year track records of discrimination and harassment have their VP of Social Equity.\u00a0 A very well respected VP from a huge corporation was challenge by me at the conference to share self excluders with rival large casinos or to create a mechanism whereby a self excluder could ask that you share the information with competitors.\u00a0\u00a0 The VP hid behind regulators and privacy and then his rival company executive explained to me that they\u2019ve tried in vain to work together for years with this company but have been stonewalled.\u00a0\u00a0 The goal for the company is to maximize profits while virtual signalling.<\/p>\n

The UK is way ahead of North America when it comes to legal sports-betting and they\u2019ve banned credit cards for funding accounts to reduce problem gambling.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They\u2019ve also banned the use of celebrity advertising.\u00a0\u00a0 In Ontario, almost every ad for gambling is a celebrity (because they banned advertising promotions or product value).<\/p>\n

The good news for sports-betting problem gambling \u2013 unlike most other problems, this one predominantly affects affluent males.\u00a0\u00a0 Like opioids, when issues arise with the nice 25 year old boy living in your suburb, they tend to get resolved rather briskly.\u00a0\u00a0 Shame on the operators, regulators, and academics for doing nothing about this inevitable freight train coming around the bend.<\/p>\n

Harley Redlick is a successful sports bettor and media personality with a passion for improving knowledge in the sports betting space.\u00a0\u00a0 He runs his own website\u00a0www.sharpedgepicks.com<\/a><\/em>\u00a0\u00a0with value betting analysis and does a weekly podcast with Jorey Middlestadt, a legend of Toronto sports radio where he provides picks and explains betting concepts to \u201csharps, squares, and newbies\u201d.\u00a0 Harley has been limited (virtually cutoff) by a number of sportsbooks for winning too much and cashed millions in prize money wagering against the OLG (Ontario Lottery). \u00a0He has a law degree from Osgoode Hall and an MBA from Rotman.\u00a0\u00a0 Harley co-created and served as Co-Program Director for the Osgoode Hall Professional Development Gaming Law certificate and lectured on sports betting for the program and then\u00a0served as an Adjunct Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School where he co-taught Gambling Law. \u00a0He has written for Yardbarker and Sun Media on issues related to sports betting and published a case study on successful betting arbitrage for the Ivey School of business.\u00a0 Harley was a panelist at the inaugural Betting on Sports in America conference, sat on the Canadian Gaming Summit\u2019s sports betting panel twice and at SIMGA\u2019s last Canada conference.\u00a0 He has served as a guest on air expert for TSN Edge, CFRB news, Doyle\u2019s Guaranteed Money, and Roger\u2019s Inside the Lines. \u00a0 His twitter handle is @sharpedgepicks<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n