Is anyone trying to regulate sports gambling on the federal level in the US? In the fall of 2024, Connecticut Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal introduced a bill with New York Congressman Paul Tonko. The SAFE Bet would restrict sports gambling ads and would help fund more gambling addiction treatment, among other things. Blumenthal speaks with Michael Lewis about why he sees sports gambling as a public health disaster in the making.
Further reading: Blumenthal’s press release on the SAFE Bet Act.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Michael Lewis invites over Yale psychology professor Dr. Laurie Santos, host of The Happiness Lab at Pushkin, for a chat about what scientific research has to tell us about sports fandom, teenagers, and gambling.
You can sign up for The Happiness Lab newsletter here.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
As an anthropologist, Natasha Schüll spent more than a decade doing field work in Vegas casinos, especially among the slot machine addicts. She tells Michael Lewis why many of those who play slots actually hate to win. And she talks about how the digital overhaul of Vegas has made all forms of gambling, including sports gambling, more like slots.
For further reading: Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas by Natasha Schüll.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Perhaps you have someone in your life who’s prone to sports gambling. Michael Lewis has someone. So he comes up with a scheme to “inoculate” his 17-year-old son against the lure of placing bets online. All the while, Lewis tries to craft the perfect “master class” for would-be gamblers to understand the dangers of what they might be getting themselves into.
Here's his reading list:
The Logic of Sports Betting by Matt Davidow and Ed Miller
Stephen Pinker’s Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters
Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O’Neil
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Michael Lewis gets a glimpse of sports gambling's future by talking with writers in Great Britain and Australia, where the industry is even more entrenched. But the US has its own peculiar history of failing to regulate dangerously addictive new products, and blaming the users instead. Especially when powerful industry advocates are able to pay scientists to sow doubt and delay the day of reckoning.
For further reading:
Lying for Money: How Legendary Frauds Reveal the Workings of our World by Dan Davies
Crikey’s coverage on sports gambling in Australia: Punted
Patrick Radden Keefe’s Empire of Pain: The Story of the Sackler Family and Purdue Pharma
Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.