The Invisible Vice
Sam Sykes ~ 12/11/2025
About a year ago, I wrote an article that gave a brief history of gambling and outlined why it really is a terrible vice. I know my continued attacks on gambling prevent Riot Club from picking up cash that is just laying there, but here goes nothing.
When I wrote about gambling last year I thought it would be a long time before I return to the subject. After all, people can have problems with industries like tobacco and alcohol, but their place as a staple in American culture is not rapidly evolving at an insane rate. If you wrote about how weed is bad last year, not much has changed in the world of grass, at least not to the regular Joe Schmoe on the street. Gambling, however, has fucking exploded into a cultural juggernaut.
It makes sense when you take a step back and look at it. If you’ve ever gambled at a casino in Las Vegas, whether playing high stakes hold ‘em or $1 penny slots, the casinos will generally give you complimentary drinks. Why? Because addiction fuels addiction. And coupling a high from other substances does not make gambling less of a high, but enhances the euphoria while affecting decision making. Power players in the world of gambling saw how addictive phones were. The way dopamine spikes when doomscrolling, and the gamification of a user's time. After all, there are two hour movies, then there’s 20 minute television episodes, then there are 5 minute YouTube clips, and lastly there is TikTok which is not measured in minutes, but seconds. As attention spans get critically small, more dopamine needs to be injected. Pairing the convenience, accessibility, and addictive nature of a smartphone with the wide world of gambling is two great evil forces teaming up to destroy the world.
Where once you had to venture out to a gambling spot to place a wager or play a slot, now you can do it from the convenience of your couch, in the checkout line at the store, or in the waiting room at the gynecologist (Just kidding, chicks don’t gamble, but you get the point).
Everywhere You Look
Gambling advertisements fucking dominate the airwaves too. You would be hard-pressed to go one day without seeing some sort of ad for one of the various gambling sites vying for your time and money. Gambling companies have also become a huge pay day for celebrities whose endorsement helps legitimize a previously taboo industry. DraftKings uses Kevin Hart (does he just do commercials now?), Shaquille O’Neil, and LeBron James. BetMGM is using Jon Hamm and Jamie Foxx. Even Dolly Parton and Michael Jackson have themed slot games that carry their namesake.
One especially sinister commercial comes courtesy of FanDuel. One of the campaigns they have been running lately is “calling all thrillionaires”, featuring thousands of people riding a giant tandem bicycle as they all chant, “calling all, calling all, calling all, thrillionaires” in deep monotone voices, almost entranced. They pedal the miles-long bicycle on a straight road in the middle of farmland, a creepy nod to the pervasive gambling exploitation and tight grip on poor midwesterners. Where are they riding this bike? To a casino? To a giant pile of money? To some representation of paradise or happiness? Nope, into a giant blue portal adorned with a golden frame, where they disappear into some ominous new world. Like lambs to the slaughter. It’s like the gambling companies are gloating. Literally showing us what they want to do to us and we can’t do anything to stop it. Creepy as fuck!
Gambling-Owned News Networks
As network television plummets into obscurity, channels with seriously overpaid hosts and crews like the ones on CNN are starting to feel the heat. In primetime, CNN boasts roughly half a million viewers while maintaining a global staff of about 3,500 people. Joe Rogan on the other hand has a massive 11 million viewers per episode, but is most likely held together by Rogan, his producer, and a small support staff. I write all of this because CNN is getting desperate. They laid off 200 employees this year and are in serious need of more viewers.
This week it was announced that prediction market Kalshi would be partnering with CNN to provide a Kalshi prediction news ticker and data sharing. But what is the glaringly obvious problem is that Kashi is essentially a gambling company that allows users to gamble on the potential outcomes of future events, like resignations, elections, economic events, and even cultural phenomena. It doesn’t take a genius to see that a gambling company partnering with a corporation, like CNN, that can influence culture and elections could be a potential conflict of interest. To be clear, I’m not saying anything nefarious is going on between CNN and Kalshi, but deals like this that are happening everyday with our supposedly “unbiased” media giants. Foxbet and Fox News are both subsidiaries of the Fox Corporation. NBCUniveral has an exclusive multi-year integration and marketing deal with DraftKings. There are a million more agreements just like these happening everyday.
The main issue here is that while all of these companies would allow alcohol advertising on their channels and even allow their personalities to start a tequila brand, they do not own the alcohol themselves. While there may be some reporting pressures when it comes to losing a vodka sponsor, the pressure is nothing like having to avoid a story to not hurt your own company. Reporting bad news about a sponsor is like a guy cutting off your thumb, attacking an industry lining the pockets of your parent company is like cutting off your own arm. But not in a cool way like the 127 Hours guy, more like a guy chained to a radiator in a Saw kind of way.
America: The Great Enabler
Gambling addiction is becoming a serious health crisis that the government avoids addressing as much as possible. The mobile sportsbooks pay a premium in state taxes, but nonetheless are willing to pay because they know it will be worth it, and the state is happy to oblige as their tax revenue fucking skyrockets. The State of New York gets 51% of sportsbook operators gross gaming revenue. The government doesn’t care if you are in the thralls of gambling addiction as long as they get a taste of the action.
Betting on Theatre
If all of this is not enough to warn of the dangers of gambling in the United States, just take a look at the NBA gambling disaster. I won’t get into all of the details of it, you can do that on your own time, but if one of the four major American sports leagues has been infiltrated by gambling and all of the wonderful things that come with it (extortion, blackmail, loansharks, debt, and desperation), isn’t game-fixing bound to happen? What about the thousands of people that look back retrospectively and bet on a fixed game? Do they get their money back? Never, the fall guy goes down, the fixers make a boatload of cash, and YOU the gambler are fucked. Betting on rigged games is like betting on WWE, and if you’re okay with that, then keep gambling, you’re too far gone.
Fin
The tobacco industry has been irrevocably damaged for lying about the effects of smoking and addictiveness of nicotine decades ago. That is small peanuts compared to the damage gambling has done to this country and the western world. It’ll take more than a tiny 1-800-GAMBLER print at the bottom of a commercial for them to reverse the generational damage they are causing. To the casual gamblers out there, stop and do something tangible like drugs or alcohol if you need a vice. At least then you can keep some of your cash and maybe go to one of those nice rehabs with massages and smoothies.
