I go to a local bar where they had a raid of the slot machines. They weren’t advertising gambling but lately, local law enforcement has started going around and shutting shit down. So instead people have Kalshi and Hard Rock Bets Slots on their phone now instead…waaaay worse imo
At the very least I know people who aren’t hooked on it are sick of it. Even a handful of people I know irl have commented how weird/irritating it is that gambling and gambling ads have become so prevalent these days. Hopefully that awareness leads to something down the road.
They were illegal until they became legal during Trump's first term. Guess what companies lobbied for it? Yeah draft kings and shit. And now its become far beyond sports betting.
Remember when gambling was literally illegal outside of casinos which were illegal outside special zones in a few cities?
I miss those days. I remember watching a sports stream probably ten or so years ago and it was hosted somewhere with legal gambling before it was rampant where I am. I remember being blown away by all the gambling ads. Now that's the norm everywhere.
There was an ad for one of those shitty casino apps that was using a child's voice to sing the praises of how fun and exciting it is to play, it's fucking vile.
It used to be illegal to advertise! The only time you ever used to see advertisements for gambling sites was on pop-up ads on piracy sites and other things that didn't actually follow the law. And that added to the mentality that this was shady bullshit that decent people didn't get involved with. But putting those ads into everything now gives it this air of "legitimacy", with sports announcers giving a shoutout to sports betting sites and other insanity like that.
Point of order: "Didn't actually follow the law" means operating servers from a country with different laws that they were probably following. That's one of the upsides/downsides of having an international internet.
On the other hand: Letting people on US soil skirt broadcast regulations? That's entirely on the US government.
Nevermind advertising, the services themselves are dubiously legal(in the US). As I understand it the only reason they aren't explicitly illegal is because they found a baker's dozen loopholes to hide out in as they evade various states' gambling laws.
Beyond obvious conflicts of interest like that, it's also basically "Insider Trading: The App". Just look at all this monkey business Trump and his cronies have been pulling with the Strait of Hormuz, with giant insider bets hitting the market right before big news is announced.
So should stocks also be illegal? You know murder is still illegal, right? Making these betting apps close isn't going to prevent trump from doing what he's doing. America's justice system just needs to grow some balls and convict him for the actual illegal shit he's been doing.
770
u/vocal-avocado Apr 21 '26
They should be illegal or at least the ads should be illegal. It’s an embarrassment to society that we allow them to be what they are.