Originally published at: Watch this manic, lightly dystopian advertisement promoting legal gambling in Florida - Boing Boing
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What took them so long? I’d assumed that Florida would have been one of the first states to make this form of betting legal. Anyhow, like the ad sez, happy compulsive money losing on your phone, Florida Man!
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It’s run by the Seminole Tribe so I guess that’s a plus.
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Now do one for “The House Always Wins”
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The app makes it safe and legal, so what can go wrong? /s
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The people who identify with the dude in the ad will never believe it. All of them have a system for beating the house, and now they can finally use it. Tra-la-la!
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“Florida: You gonna need the booze and gambling to make the day feel better after encountering that guy who is hooked on molly who is trying to deal with the 97% humidity at the gas station.”
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There is a massive mental health and economic crisis unfolding right in front of us and people are only too happy to enable it. Completely unnecessary and avoidable. Sports book betting is going to shred so many lives and families.
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On the one hand… watching idiots get fleeced by greedy amoral rich people. On the other hand presumably that loss of money is taxed and pays for public infrastructure?
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Where is that puke emoji!!!
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The tentacles tracing where all that money will be going would be very enlightening.
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I used to work for a sports betting company. Not something I’m particularly proud of, but I did learn a lot.
Generally the way bookies make their odds is that they split their players into different buckets: sharps and squares.
The sharps are the ones who regularly do beat the house. Maybe they have some insider knowledge (eg- they’re a trainer on the team they like to bet on and know who has injuries…it’s not illegal if you do it anonymously), or they have massive spreadsheets and know how to use them. This is maybe 5% of people. The squares are everyone else who bet and lose. Some of the more sophisticated bookies have more than two buckets based on how good the players are at betting.
With this information, the bookie knows that if a sharp bets one way on a game, that’s a good indication to change the odds to reflect that.
Essentially, what happens is that bookies are outsourcing odds making to certain players who have more time and expertise on specific teams. These sharps get a cut of the profits for all the research (or insider knowledge) they provide. They also get their accounts limited so they can’t bet (and win) too much on any given game.
The sharps, being sharp, are constantly trying to get around this by creating new accounts and similar things. The bookies are always trying to prevent this by various means.
TLDR: Some people do make money off of sports betting (not just the bookies). Is it really worth it, though?
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The sharps are not the intended audience for that ad.
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Right…the intended audience are those who think they are sharp.
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Legal, yes.
Safe?
Do you really think there is sufficient regulation and monitoring of these kinds of sites to preclude them from being outright scams.
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i was at the Hollywood Hard Rock just last friday and was disappointed that the sports book lounge area offered no live betting, only kiosks where one had to download the app, make an account, fund the account (venmo, paypal or credit card) before being able to then place any bets from your phone, on the app. also most disappointingly of all - in what i assumed would be a live sports book lounge - was that there is no off-track betting on horse races, like one would find in Las Vegas or Biloxi or other casinos. bummer.
in the end, i did not (and most likely will not) download the app or make an account. i would, however, have made some bets in house, but i am not going to carry that ability home with me after leaving the casino.
all that said, i think the advert is fun, in an over-the-top fashion and rather like it. indeed, we see it every night on the local (miami) news, due to the fact the Hard Rock Bet sponsors the sports segment of the WPLG10 newscast.
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“Florida’s state bird is a chicken finger!” 
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Something is legal in Florida. Progress?
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See, this is the secret sauce that is really driving the explosion of casual betting and accelerating losses (other than fucking SCOTUS). They incentivize first-time users with “free” cash to bet with their first time, getting them to get that rush of winning without any of the consequence of losing. Then they begin letting them have access to things like higher risk/reward options like parlay that allows them to bet on user-specific interests like a favorite player’s performance (ie. a RB hitting 50+ yards in a game). It gets to know the bettor and prompts them for more tailored betting styles at times when they’ll be most vulnerable to suggestion. Then, if a user’s engagement tapers off, they’ll ping them with more “free” cash, literally dripping it right in their account “risk free”. It’s like if Facebook was offering free crack delivered to your door and when someone checks into rehab there’s a dealer offering free samples before every group session. The addiction model of social media brought directly into your bank account.
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right?!
funny (ironic? strange?) thing is, mr. fascist, MoRon DeSantis was totally behind this act.
maybe the ‘Noles offered a hefty kickback?
just askin’… (/s)
edit to add: @cannibalpeas exactly! the “try before you buy” drug dealer model did not escape me, either. and yes, you can bet your bottom dollar the algorithm will do exactly as you point out - tailoing the betting you get to be progressively more and more risky to the player and more lucrative to the house!
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