Taking a sample from Major League Baseball, a normal regular season with all 30 teams playing 162 games each means that there are 4,4860 opportunities to place a legal wager on the national pastime in the state of Mississippi. In the NBA, there are roughly half as many opportunities and about 10% (480) regular-season games. This does not include playoffs and college sports. The point is that betting and sports gambling can turn something meant for fun and entertainment into a full-fledged addiction.
I know people near and dear to me and those with whom I’m casually associated that place bets on games just about every day of the calendar year. Sometimes they win big, but more often than not, they lose. And the losses seem minor because the person might have submitted a five-dollar ticket on three teams. This seems like a low-risk high reward until you start counting the number of five-dollar tickets that result in a loss over the days, weeks, and months. This is where a problem begins to occur. Wagers on games start to become a recurring expense like a utility bill.
I’m not an expert on the subject of addiction or psychology, but my appeal to those struggling with sports betting and gambling. The reason why I can’t make sports betting a part of my routine interaction with enjoying athletics is that my heart is too attached to my favorite teams. All of us know in our heads when our favorite teams are not as good as an opponent. So, how do you wager in this situation? Do you bet with your heart to demonstrate loyalty? Or do you bet with your head to provide the best opportunity for financial gain? These questions are rhetorical given that the object is to cash in, but even using your head and all of the available data in these situations don’t always result in wins. Upsets happen, injuries occur within games, and missed calls from officials weigh heavily on some outcomes. And besides, sports betting is a business. The system is designed for the house to take in more than it shells out.
With this in mind, please keep your consumption of sports fun and entertaining. And if you just have to make betting on games part of the experience don’t do it to the degree that it becomes a financial setback and diminishes hard-earned wages and the overall escape that watching sports gives us.
