Colleges and sports-betting companies ‘caesarized’ campus life | Hacker News Reader

Colleges and sports-betting companies ‘caesarized’ campus life

nytimes.com

51 pointsboringg19 comments

I don't have any particular problems with sports betting (at least, no more problems than I have with any kind of organized gambling).

What's repugnant about cases like these is the tension in interests: these university sports teams are functionally autonomous corporations operating under the legal and reputational cover of academia, all while abusing athletes physically and financially (sometimes to death[1]).

Further "collaborations" between sports betting companies and academic athletics are the logical consequence of these fundamentally corrupt incentives.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_McNair

Sports betting leads to all sorts of crime outside the casinos involving innocent people. Bribes, fixed games, injuring athletes, and doping have more incentives to happen with less scrupulous actors. It’s not hard to imagine a college athlete getting more than his entire scholarship to throw one game.

I would have actually voted for the Indian gaming ballot initiative if it didn’t include sports betting this year. I’d just like to keep the social problems of gambling confined to people who actually go to casinos (and their families too, of course, but criminalizing is probably worse).

Yeah, I don't want to hear another word about how this is amateur sports and that that means that the athletes should not get paid.

Don't forget NCAA arguing that paying athletes would somehow taint the experience (by taking money from the corporations).

The more I read stuff like this, the more I think most old institutions in the US need a thorough overhaul. Universities, hospitals (actually, everything medical), telecoms and cable companies… The list goes on. It all seems like such a dumpster fire.

I’m not quite as pessimistic as you, but it does seem like college and sports need to be separated. The athletic departments (specifically the revenue producing sports of football and basketball) operate with different incentives than the university, creating a conflict of interest that diminishes the role of university as institution of learning.

Yes - it seems fundamentally misaligned with the academic mission of a university. Especially a sport like football with no willingness to address the known brain damage and other physical harm endured by athletes. When you add on athletic scholarships, different rules and standards for athletes, and the opportunity cost to one’s education on single tracking for a sport, it really starts to make less sense for many individuals and the institution.

It does seem that corporate regulation, including higher education (both for-profit and "non-profit but we have D1 football") and healthcare, is ineffective in the US.

Some regulations that seem to work pretty well: airline safety, food safety, cosmetic product safety, factory work hours.

Pretty upsetting that some Universities find the solution to the moral dilemma of encouraging gambling is to continue doing it but siphon off some of the profits for DnI.

It speaks to the prevalence of the idea that the ends justify the means in our culture. DnI just so happens to be the latest goal that is difficult to argue against without being characterized as a bigot or racist.

The same holds true for state lotteries and their advertising. The fact that some funds go to support education does not negate the fact that the state is promoting and engaging in Behavior that is destructive to many individuals.

The fact that someone else's bound to prey on these individuals doesn't make it right for you to do it.

I personally would be more charitable with those collaborations were it for the fact that I do not see a real drop for me in real estate taxes ( vis-a-vis state lotteries ) or college cost ( like the one article mentions ).

And here is the kicker. Basic search notes that in-state after aid tuition stands at[2]:

$19,058 ( in fairness, there are some spreads depending on income )

Aid includes grants and scholarships from the institution, state, and federal government. And it is an estimate, because in a true MBA fashion everything was done to make the actual cost as difficult to decipher as possible[3].

And just to add to this. This particular institution is not exactly hurting for money[1]. Their endowment is over 1 billion. You would think they do not need to collaborate.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_State_University [2]https://admissions.msu.edu/cost-aid# [3]https://ctlr.msu.edu/COStudentAccounts/TuitionFees/Resident_...

We are all being preyed upon. The vampire lords are sucking their thralls dry.

Read Michael Hudson and you'll understand.

Ok, what is DnI? I spent way too long searching for a def'n.

Diversity and Inclusion programs.

If the general population cared as much for education as much as they do their high school and college sports, we'd fix our education problems overnight. We can defund anything you want in our public high schools, but touch the football team and watch out.

Related ongoing thread;

A lobbying blitz made sports betting ubiquitous - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33684467 - Nov 2022 (18 comments)

Just universities? They bet all the way down to K12 as kids run around in trash bags to make a weight class. (Or at least, that's how it was in the 2000s.)

Unless you have a moral problem with gambling I don't see this as being any different than any other marketing deals they make.

I think a lot of people take that view.

Morality aside, gambling, including sports gambling, creates measurable social harm.

Similarly, I do not have a moral problem with opioids. But they have a measurable social harm.

Marketing those products to college-age students does not benefit society in the long term.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com