#fantasy football rest of season 2023 | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

battleangel · 6 months ago

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Gambling Addicts Suicides = Billions for the NFL

Per fherehab.com, gamblers have the highest suicide rate, proportionately, of any addiction. While there are more drug and alcohol addicts (about 25 to 30 million in the US) as opposed to 10 million or so pathological gamblers, a larger percentage of gamblers attempt or complete suicide.

Per Google, up to half of people in gambling disorder treatment have suicidal thoughts, and about 17% have attempted suicide. A 2018 Swedish study found that people with problem gambling had a suicide mortality rate that was 15 times higher than the rest of the population. According to studies, people with gambling disorder have the highest suicide rate of any addiction disorder, with one in five attempting suicide.

A gambling addict is five times more likely to die by suicide than a drug addict or alcoholic — thank god online sports betting and betting apps are now ubiquitous and you can bet on every play, every down in every NFL game!

May is Mental Health Awareness Month and I wanted to discuss an addiction that is fairly invisible compared to other addictions like drugs, alcohol, opioids and food — gambling.

You can't see that someone has gambled themselves into debilitating debt or bankruptcy.

There is no visible weight gain, change in physical appearance, behaviors, mannerisms or behavior like there is with other addictions.

If the gambling addict doesn't disclose their addiction, unless you somehow have access to their financial records, or unless their addiction gets to the point where it costs them their job or their residence — there is no way you would know they have a gambling addiction unless they tell you.

Unlike liquor, fentanyl, cocaine, percocet, vicodin, oxycontin, junk food, fast food and other addictions which have visible markers — gambling addiction doesn't.

Gambling addiction is the most invisible and the most deadly addiction.

Gambling addiction has the highest rate of suicide.

That is why I wanted to discuss and examine what the NFL has done in terms of exploiting gambling addiction for profit during the last day of Mental Health Awareness month.

The NFL is literally profiting off of gamblers' addictions, misery, depression and suicides and I don't see much discussion around it.

Restless, desperate, depressed, suffering, irritable, in debt, broke, broken down, suicidal — exactly the type of gamblers the NFL covets, creates, endlessly preys on and exploits.

The 2020 CBA doesn't involve a financial agreement for the players regarding compensation for online sports betting on NFL games and fantasy football.

The players are the ones being betted on and moved around as pawns in peoples fantasy leagues, they're the ones incurring the permanent brain damage every single season and assuming all the risk yet getting exactly zero of the reward as it is set up in the CBA to go exclusively to team owners unlike say television deals and rights which players share a part of the revenue with the league.

Online sports betting now that it is allowed inside NFL arenas as of 2023 is expected to explode in further popularity — the players will see exactly zero additional revenue from this.

Per MSNBC.com:

"But the rise in sports gambling on the internet and phone has accelerated the prevalence of gambling addiction. The ease with which people can access online sports gambling platforms is frightening. The states love it, as they are getting dollars from the gamblers. Nor is there any effort to restrict its visibility, the way tobacco ads have largely been banned. These sportsbooks bring in billions a year, while millions of lives are ruined. They depend upon compulsive gamblers, sucking them dry while misery mounts not just for themselves, but for their friends and families. Now, with the advent of artificial intelligence and big gambling data, there are different types of bets that can be offered every few seconds while watching games in real time.

Much of the growth has been in the online betting platforms that offer a dizzying number of wagers that change minute-to- minute. A flood of advertising, technology that allows for one-click betting at home, and nearly unlimited betting options during games have collided. In the past five years, there has been an explosion of online sports betting apps from companies like DraftKings, FanDuel and Caesars. Focus on gambling disorders has historically been minimal in the United States. This is in part because people with gambling disorders have been viewed as foolish or lacking willpower. We equate the ability to hold onto money and win money with success and equate losing with greed."

Per CNN.com:

"Many states naively or some other way went about legalizing sports betting without adequately estimating the costs on problem gambling resources," said John Holden, an associate professor of management at Oklahoma State University who studies sports gambling regulation."

They estimated the costs on problem gambling — they want people addicted to gambling.

The NFL wants this because its billions more in revenue for them and, remember, the most recent 2020 CBA does not allocate any revenue that the NFL generates from online sports betting and fantasy football to the players that are sacrificing their bodies and minds to make the NFL that money.

So, the NFL reaps all the rewards while the players are the ones on the field taking all of the risks and not making a single solitary dime and we are talking about billions in revenue.

Talk about a slave plantation when 70% of the players are black and 0% of the owners are black yet black men only make up 6% of the US population.

Modern day slavery.

Per CNN.com:

"Many recovering gambling addicts feel helpless against the constant barrage of advertising encouraging betting on games. "We consider it to be predatory advertising because it's incessant and it glamorizes gambling," Grondin said."

Its incessant, glamorizing, ubiquitous and being done in partnership with the NFL so the ads are relentlessly shown during games and parlays and betting lines are discussed by analysts during the pre-game show.

The ads and marketing are literally inescapable, just like a stalker and true predator — predatory.

Per CNN.com:

"Regulators are wary of how tightly they can curtail messages in gambling advertising without running afoul of First Amendment protections on commercial speech. "A lot of state regulators have big First Amendment fears," Holden said. "No one wants to fund litigation or lose a Supreme Court case over gambling."

The First Amendment is being used to protect predatory advertising targeting vulnerable gambling addicts that have a suicide rate five times higher than alcohol & drug addicts?!

That's freedom of expression?!

Per CNN.com:

"In most states, the legal age for sports betting is 21 years old. But ads during games, in stadiums, and with star athlete sponsors normalizes sports betting for kids and teenagers, critics say. The United Kingdom last year banned top athletes and celebrities from appearing in ads endorsing or promoting gambling to try to curb underage gambling. That's unlikely to happen in the United States."

The United States of capitalist excess, exploitation, overconsumption, materialism, consumerism, addictions, compulsions, disordered behaviors, binges, highest individual debt in the world, highest cost of living, glamorizing addictive behavior, spend spend spend, buy buy buy, shop till you drop, money makes the world go round, money buys happiness, retail therapy, hey you never know, publishers clearing house, $100k pyramid, lets make a deal!, dystopian game shows reality shows & competition shows, dying to gamble, dying to win, bankruptcy, foreclosures, repossessions, evictions, overcompensating, impressing people you want to know, kissing ass, keeping up with the joneses, obsessions, adrenaline rushes, vicarious thrills, dying to feel alive, chasing down highs, monotony of modern life, cubicle slave, worker bee, 9 to 5 drudgery, the excitement of winning your parlay, beating the odds, beating the system, coming out on top, becoming a millionaire, quitting your day job, instantaneous wealth, everybody else is doing it, seductive ads, predatory ads, alluring ads, compelling ads, Jamie Foxx, Gronk, Kevin Hart, Draft Kings, FanDuel, hot blondes, Buffalo Wild Wings, filling up your empty existence, finally winning at something, distractions from the constant drudgery of daily life, beating the doldrums, not totally up to luck & chance, using knowledge of football to beat the odds, finally getting rewarded for all these years of being a fan, makes watching the games more interesting, being more invested as a fan, threatening a players life for fucking up your parlay, sending death threats to a running back with a season ending and potentially career altering injury for fucking up your parlay, dehumanization of the players, dehumanization of the self.

Make the NFL plantation 100% white owners richer and richer off of the backs of their 70% black slaves...

Per APA.org:

"People can gamble around the clock from anywhere and, increasingly, at many ages, including teenagers and even young children who are well below the legal age for gambling. Starting young carries a relatively high burden of psychological distress and increased chances of developing problems. The National Institutes of Health has agencies dedicated to problem alcohol use and drug use, but there are no official efforts aimed at problem gambling, and there are no federal regulations against advertisements for sports betting.

An estimated 96% of people with gambling problems have at least one other psychiatric disorder. Substance use disorders, impulse-control disorders, mood disorders, and anxiety disorders are particularly common among people with gambling problems."

The sports betting & fantasy betting ads target and exploit people who already struggle with impulse and self control and encourages them to make risky bets, bet impulsively and to lose whatever self control they have and bet with Draft Kings now now now every play every down how many yards how many catches how many forced fumbles how many interceptions how many pass break up attempts how many first downs how many QB rushes how many QB hurries how many sacks how many tackles for loss.

Every imaginable stat at your fingertips, the NFL's dream, and an addictive bettor's worst nightmare...

Per APA.org, "Vulnerability is high in people with low incomes who have more to gain with a big win."

Targeting the working poor already being exploited by capitalism just like the alcohol, fast food, soda, snacking and credit card rewards companies do.

Per APA.org, "Unlike rewards given after every repetition of a behavior, this type of variable ratio reinforcement, or intermittent reinforcement, exploits a cognitive distortion that makes a gambler view each loss as one step closer to a win and can lead to very rapid adoption of a behavior that can then be hard to extinguish. Animals exhibit the same patterns."

Psychological exploitation, psyops, psychological warfare.

Per APA. org, "As many as 90% or more of people with gambling problems never seek help. Nower has proposed three main pathways that can lead to gambling problems. For one group of people, habitual gambling pushes them to chase wins until they develop a problem. A second group comes from a history of trauma, abuse, or neglect, and gambling offers an escape from stress, depression, and anxiety. A third group may have antisocial or impulsive personalities with risk-taking behaviors."

Recall this from earlier in my article: "An estimated 96% of people with gambling problems have at least one other psychiatric disorder. Substance use disorders, impulse-control disorders, mood disorders, and anxiety disorders are particularly common among people with gambling problems."

And this from the above quote from APA.org: "A second group comes from a history of trauma, abuse, or neglect, and gambling offers an escape from stress, depression, and anxiety."

This is a complete and total set up to target vulnerable populations already more susceptible to gambling addictions with predatory ads — the NFL, Draft Kings & FanDuel are partially responsible for the deaths of gambling addicts that are committing suicide at five times the rate of alcohol and drug addicts and they could give a fuck less.

APA.org:

"In 2023, at its peak, according to news reports, the betting platform FanDuel reported taking 50,000 bets per minute. Sports bettors trend young: The fastest-growing group of sports gamblers are between 21 and 24 years old, according to an analysis by Nower's group of data from New Jersey, which legalized sports gambling in 2018. Compared with other kinds of gambling, the in-game betting offered during sports games is highly dependent on impulsivity, Nower said.

There are opportunities to place bets during the game on everything from who will win the coin toss to which quarterback will throw 100 yards first to how long the national anthem will last. And impulsivity is particularly common in younger people and among sports fans caught up in the emotion of a game, Nower said.

About 14% of sports bettors reported thoughts of suicide and 10% said they had made a suicide attempt, she and colleagues found in one New Jersey study."

And gambling addicts have a suicide rate five times higher than alcohol and drug addicts — five times! And the NFL could give less than a fuck.

Per APA.org:

"Because of gambling on mobile phones and tablets, there's no real way to keep children from gambling on their parents', friends', or siblings' accounts. And they're being bombarded with all these advertisements. This is a recipe for problems among a lot of young people."

"We educate our kids in our school systems about alcohol use, drug use, drinking and driving, and unprotected sex," Derevensky said. "It's very difficult to find jurisdictions and school boards that have gambling prevention programs."

The NFL likes to get them while they're young and vulnerable and easy to exploit — just like Pop Warner.

Some observations from NFL Reddit:

"If you just do it on your phone you may not fully appreciate the consequences or realize how much you are actually wagering. At a certain point it just feels like another addicting cell phone game. Which is exactly what the gambling companies want."

"Simmons, etc. frame parlays as a "smart guy" way to play but if you look at it from a business perspective the books have a much higher take rate on parlays which is why they are getting promoted so much. So it's pretty much a lie. But smart gamblers don't do any of the things that would be advised on podcasts. They might sweat individual bets but also generally understand that bad beats are part of life, they are not wagering emotionally on or against teams that they dislike for whatever reason. Also the online books will start limiting you as soon as you win, so it's basically a waste of time if you are trying to be a "smart" gambler..."

This instant gambling, 'take out your phone and bet right now!' ubiquitous exploitative mantra in every ad and during every game is so fucking predatory and exploitative — just like the NFL — who is making billions off of gambling every single season.

For the NFL, the more addicts, the more suicides, the more lives ruined, the better.

More NFL Reddit observations:

"A lot of people consume the NFL through the lens of fantasy (people like to own their friends) and gambling (people like the thrill of winning/losing money), so the NFL is now dependent on those to sustain interest in the sport as a whole. We're going to see more gambling and fantasy content in the future."

"It has increased football's hold on people. Along with fantasy, it's a reason to follow all of the games as opposed to just your team's games."

"I know so many people that would have never gambled if it weren't so accessible and heavily promoted."

"It's ruining sports, it's ruining watching sports with people. We all know guys whose lives basically revolve around their daily bets."

The NFL revels in creating future gambling addicts and future suicides — just like their current players quietly developing CTE and later committing suicide decades after they finish playing.

The NFL makes billions upon billions with online sports betting and fantasy football with an audience mostly made up of men — who develop gambling addictions at double the rate of women — yet they cant significantly and seriously fund any studies on gambling addiction yet gambling addicts commit suicide at five times the rate of alcohol and drug addicts?

$6 million is what the NFL contributed to sports betting research in the same year they made over $3 billion from online sports betting. Do the math.

Just like the NFL's reluctance to acknowledge CTE and fund research into it, the NFL refuses to seriously commit to funding research on gambling addiction because of how massively they are benefitting and profiting from gambling addicts to the tune of billions of dollars a year.

Just like their stance on CTE for decades, the NFL doesn't want to know.

The Supreme Court legalized online sports betting in 2018 and it is legal six years later in over 38 states — legal, instantly accessible on mobile phones, apps and tablets with ubiquitous and predatory ads with ultra famous athletes and celebrities from Gronkowski and Kevin Hart to pregame analysts endlessly spouting off about parlays, prop bets, over/unders, spreads, picks, who's going to score next ad nauseum.

Final NFL Reddit Observations:

"Avoiding your addiction is critical to recovery. By advertising constantly, you are more likely to recapture those recovering addicts. Gambling is a psychological addiction so the advertising component is more important."

"I'm sick to fucking death of how sports betting, gambling is spreading like herpes. I didn't have particularly strong feelings until I saw one commercial whose eyes literally lit up with pleasure on opening some gambling app. Something about this new sports betting world arouses such disgust in me I can barely speak. It's spreading into paid partnerships where just using an app 'unlocks' some bullshit offer to start gambling 'risk free'. By far it's some of the sleaziest, most manipulative marketing I've ever seen and I hate it."

"Sports betting is as addictive as drugs and maybe worse because it's been normalized as a leisure activity and some people are sucked in to the promise of free bets and big payouts."

"Having it available on a device everyone owns that fits in the palm of your hand is terrifying."

"Online gambling is a slippery slope into poverty and despair."

"Without fantasy football, people wouldn't be watching half the games they are. They only watch the games because they have money on them. Suddenly they have skin in the game for teams they'd normally not care about. It's incredibly manipulative."

"The one that really frustrates me is the Jamie Foxx commercial where he's playing a piano and says something like 'You'll be watching every pitch, every run, every lap, every catch now'. I mean right there, they freely admit that gambling can lead to compulsive behaviors."

"These companies are absolutely predatory; they are armed with addiction techniques and scientific studies against people who can't defend themselves. It's psychological weaponry."

"I'm so tired of seeing betting/gambling ads. They've become as pervasive as the drug/pharmaceutical ads."

"EVERY PLAY!! EVERY DOWN!!! BET $5 AND GET $1500 IN BONUS BUCKS!! INSTANTLY!"

Predatory exploitative fucks.

They want people disordered, addictive, compulsive, anxious, depressed, empty, listless, lethargic, impulsive, chasing wins, bored, apathetic, despondent, desperate, money hungry, thrill seeking, adrenaline junkies, high on wins, greedy...

Online sports betting & fantasy betting ads are as predatory, exploitative and ubiquitous as pharmaceutical industrial advertising.

Just as obnoxious and unavoidable. Just as transparent and nauseating. Just as disgustingly disingenuous with their warnings tacked on to the very end whether its medication side effects or gambling addiction helplines.

The NFL makes billions from predatory ads every single season while they continue to create, fuel, worsen & endlessly profit off of gambling addictions.

Per The Washington Post:

"The rapid advance of this technology has allowed gambling operators to figure out a lot about customers - when they bet, how much they bet, whom they bet on - and addiction experts maintain that the companies have a responsibility to use that data to help keep bettors from becoming addicts."

But they don't use the technology and customer data to help bettors from becoming addicts — they use it to send notifications to bettors directly to their cell phones reminding them when its time to place a bet making their gambling addictions even worse.

They want addicts — its best for business.

Just like the alcoholic beverage industry, the vast majority of the money made for both the sports & fantasy online betting industries is made via addicts who overspend.

These industries actively court, lure, seduce, convince and use hypnotic messaging and brainwashing tactics to prey on vulnerable individuals susceptible to addictive behavior as part of their very lucrative and hideously disingenuous, cruel and exploitative marketing plans.

Per The Washington Post:

"On the individual level, operators have enough funds to offer tempting cash bonuses for placing initial bets from new accounts. You certainly don't see that kind of offer for, say, new smokers or new drinkers.

"Think about the ads," Maney said. "Every one of these kids is seeing them Facebook, Instagram, every game you watch. If you're a 12-, 14-year-old - the backdrop is DraftKings. Why wouldn't they gamble?"

From "Sports Gambling: Trading On Americas Addiction To The NFL":

"Revenues in the online sports gambling sector are expected to clock in at roughly $11 billion in 2023, which would represent a 72% increase from 2022. The NFL is America's favorite sports league, which is why the kick-off of the NFL season typically triggers a surge in American sports betting activity.

However, the "house" now extends beyond just sports books - state governments have also horned in on the action - collecting an estimated $3.50 billion in tax-related revenue since the start of 2018 as of 2023.

Not surprisingly, that same research also demonstrated that there's a strong correlation between betting activity and game viewership. For example, survey responses indicated that two-thirds of mobile gamblers were more likely to watch a game they'd wagered on.

That's certainly music to the ears of NFL owners. According to the American Gaming Association (AGA), the NFL collects an extra $2.3 billion per year in revenues due to the advent of widespread, legal sports gambling.

Moreover, an estimated 76% of Americans actively follow the NFL, according to research conducted by Statista. The American Gaming Association (AGA) released the results from a recent survey that indicated upwards of 73 million Americans are likely to make a wager focused on the NFL in 2023. According to AGA data, that figure represents an increase of about 60% from 2022.

Within the online sports gambling industry there's two primary heavyweights - DraftKings (DKNG) and FanDuel. FanDuel accounts for roughly 46% of the market, while DraftKings has 25%. Rounding out the top four are BetMGM and Caesars, which control 12% and 7% of the market, respectively.

As of early September 2023, sports gambling has now been legalized in 38 states and the District of Columbia. Just 10 years ago, that level of penetration in the U.S. market would have seemed unthinkable."

More revenue, more money, more billions, more suicides, more addicts, more divorces, more broken families, more depression, more deaths, more destitution, more ruined careers, more debt, more bankruptcies, more foreclosures, more evictions, more repossessions, more ruined credit, more shame, more impulsivity, more bragging about wins & hiding losses, more rehab, more recovery, more pressure on players, more player injuries, more death threats to players, more dehumanization of players, more revenue for the NFL plantation owners & less money to the slaves playing, more wishing death on players with season-ending injuries who fucked up your parlay, less true fandom, less enjoyment of the game, less fun for players, more exploitation, more manipulation, more predatory, more seductive, more legal, more alluring, more exciting, more reason to watch, more investment in the NFL, more adrenaline rushes, more wins to chase, more opportunities to win back your losses, more child addicts, more addicted teens, more casinos in your pocket, more bets on every play every down every game, more anxiety, more substance use disorders.

More fans dying for their gambling addictions, FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM Casino, Caesars, the NFL owners & Roger Goodell...

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