LA Daily News: Joe Rogan rightly defends the principle of choice for sports betting

Published in the LA Daily News

Just 30 minutes into a nearly three-hour talk fest with podcaster Joe Rogan, journalist Alex Berenson formed some sound advice.

“Beware the person who tells you what to do because ‘they know what’s best for you,” he said.

The conversation was now centered on opioids and fentanyl, but Berenson had just finished laying out his grave concern over the proliferation of legalized sports betting and iGaming, shorthand for casino-style games available on mobile devices. Berenson feels consumers can’t handle this kind of choice, especially not on their smartphones.

Since the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision to strike down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, legal sports betting has predictably exploded. The industry hit $7.5 billion in revenue in 2022, a nearly 75 percent increase from the year prior. Sportsbooks insiders expect the business to top $40 billion by 2030.

It is a dramatic and predictable rise for a newly legitimized wager economy. Legalization creates above-board markets for otherwise illicit activities and products, but does it always necessarily supercharge the demand?

Alex Berenson tends to think so.

“Once upon a time if you wanted to gamble legally you had to go out to Las Vegas – you had to go out to the desert and find that gambling – and deal with the mob – if you wanted to bet football you could probably find a bookie who called a friend who called a friend – but there was gonna be some guy who might break your arm if you didn’t pay – so you could do it, but it was discouraged and not that easy,” says Berenson.

Surely, there must be a middle ground between legal, regulated betting markets and Vegas mobsters hinting at broken bones if you run up a debt you can’t pay.

Informed consumers deserve the opportunity to make choices for themselves in a safe marketplace. We are in a wild west of betting right now, and it hasn’t been rapid enough in ridding the shady and undesired elements that defined this industry for so long.

The New York Times reported on New York gambling companies illegally accepting lower-division football and basketball bets. At least two states looked the other way as consumers loaded their accounts with credit card funds, also against the law.

Bad actors must be weeded out of markets. Legalization is the first step, allowing competing firms and platforms to offer the best experience for consumers. At the same time, consumers deserve aggressive enforcement of illegal practices designed to hook players on gambling. It is not an activity without risk.

Berenson and Rogan both understand this, as the latter regularly reads DraftKings ads for his Spotify-exclusive podcast, the most popular podcast in the world.

“It’s going to wreck people who it would never have been available to before,” says Berenson. “That’s just a function of freedom, right?” Rogan responds.

Joe Rogan asks a reasonable question, as this is where principle comes into play. Are you really living in a free society if you want to bet some money on an NBA game, but can’t legally do so because some regulator (you’ve never met) thinks they know best?

Nearly every state government has some kind of monopolized lottery that reaps billions in revenue every year, usually relying on lower-income Americans who make up the largest share of ticket buyers. These programs are heralded for the money they bring to state coffers to fund education, and of course, gambling addiction support.

Where does their mandate for protecting the public end?

Prohibitionists of all kinds, whether it be alcohol, drugs, tobacco, or adult entertainment, are seldom wrong when they point to a certain behavior that, when performed in excess, is potentially harmful, morally or otherwise. What they don’t want to answer for is the measures taken to control the behavior and police it.

What good is a “well-being” regime that aims to forbid the sale of 16-ounce sugary drinks while simultaneously refusing to promote physical fitness in public schools? It doesn’t say anything virtuous about a society that would be shy about promoting the importance of curbing obesity during a pandemic and instead promote vaccination without modifications to lifestyle.

Gambling is not an activity I’d recommend to a loved one, ever. But it is a thing that many people enjoy doing, and that people have always done in one form or another. They should be allowed to do it without the threat of force by a bookie or police officer.

Choice is a virtue, and resources should be channeled toward promoting sound decision-making, robust addiction treatment for those who struggle, and a civil society that helps to keep high-risk individuals from destroying their lives.

Rest assured, there is no line in the sand with the kind of people who claim to know what is best for you. Alex Berenson was right when he said – you should beware.

Stephen Kent is the media director for the Consumer Choice Center and Editor of This Is The Way on Substack