Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (2014) s12e05 Episode Script
Sports Betting
1
Welcome to "Last Week Tonight"!
I'm John Oliver, thank you for
joining us. It has been a busy week.
Chuck Schumer and 10 Democrats
caved on a resolution
to fund the federal government,
Dr. Oz had his confirmation hearing
and the White House essentially
staged a Tesla promotional event,
complete with Trump carrying
around handwritten notes
about pricing like a car salesman
on his first day.
Meanwhile, federal workers continued
to be fired for no clear reason.
Though,
in the case of one pardon attorney,
there seemed to be
a pretty specific one.
Tonight, Liz Oyer says she lost her job
because she refused
to recommend that Mel Gibson
be allowed to buy a gun again.
The actor and a backer of the
president's lost that gun right
after he pleaded no contest to
a domestic violence charge in 2011.
When I came into work on Friday
morning, I said to a colleague,
"I really think that Mel Gibson
might be my downfall."
And within hours of saying that,
I was being escorted out of my office.
It is frankly incredible she got fired
because she didn't think Mel Gibson,
best known for his work
in screaming, should have guns.
If you've forgotten the specifics
of his various scandals,
I recommend you check out
his Wikipedia page,
and while you're there,
check out his dad's,
because the opening paragraph
alone is spectacular.
Hutton Peter Gibson was an American
conspiracy theorist, Holocaust denier,
writer on sedevacantism,
which is a belief
that there hasn't been a valid
pope since 1958,
a World War II veteran,
'Jeopardy!' grand champion for 1968
and the father of 11 children,
one of whom is the actor
and director Mel Gibson.
That is a fascinating man. And
imagine having so many terrible views
that producing Mel Gibson is not
the worst thing about you.
But we're gonna focus
on another bold move
the Trump administration
made this week.
Tonight, anger spilling onto
New York City sidewalks
after federal immigration agents
arrested Mahmoud Khalil,
who his lawyer says is a legal
permanent resident with a green card.
Khalil recently finished a master's
at Columbia and helped
lead pro-Palestinian
protests on campus.
His lawyer adding he was detained
on Saturday in front of his wife,
a U.S. citizen who
is eight months pregnant.
President Trump has vowed
to crack down on antisemitism
on college campuses.
Today he called Khalil's detainment
"the first arrest of many to come."
Okay, so there's a lot there.
First, Trump wanting to crack down
on antisemitism is pretty rich,
given a top DOD press secretary
was recently found to have
a history
of racist and antisemitic tweets,
Musk and JD Vance both recently
supported Germany's AFD,
a party with ties to neo-Nazis,
and of course there was this shit,
and that is all before you get
to their efforts this week
to make sure that this fucking guy,
whose views on the Jews
are, let's say, a matter of public
record, got his guns back.
Set all of that aside.
Clearly, you shouldn't be deporting
green card holders for their views.
And for what it's worth,
regardless of what others
may have said
or done during those protests,
Khalil explicitly said, "Antisemitism
and any other form of racism"
"has no place on this campus
and in this movement."
It's also notable some Jewish
students at Columbia rallied
in support of Khalil this week.
And while the word bitch
in me wants to point out
that's not how you spell
the word "fascism",
I don't want to draw attention from
the excellent "pigs aren't kosher" sign
just a few feet behind it.
That's the kind of pithy slogan
that would turn Don Draper's head.
He wouldn't hire a Jewish copywriter
until pretty late in the show,
but still,
put that in your book, kid.
Amid all the justified outrage,
it is notable how little rationale
for this arrest has been offered.
When Mike Johnson was asked
what specific crime Khalil
committed, this was his response.
If you are on a student visa
and you're in America
and you're an aspiring young terrorist
who wants to prey upon your
Jewish classmates, you're going home.
We're gonna arrest yourŧ tail and
send you home where you belong.
Okay. First, he's not on
a student visa anymore,
he has a green card.
Second, "aspiring young terrorist"
would be a great band name,
but it's an awful thing to call someone
who engaged in protected protest.
And finally, if you're gonna do
something this offensive,
don't get cute about it.
Just say "we're gonna arrest
your ass" like a fucking adult.
And it's not just Johnson
making big claims
about Khalil without support.
The Department of Homeland Security,
for instance, claimed
he "led activities
aligned to Hamas",
but when a DHS official was asked
to back up that assertion by NPR,
he had shockingly little
in response.
How did he support Hamas?
Exactly what did he do?
I think you can see it on TV, right?
This is somebody that
we've invited and allowed
the student to come into the country
and he put himself
in the middle of the process
of basically pro-Palestinian activity.
First, when the question is about
providing support for Hamas
and the answer
is "pro-Palestinian activity",
you are already
telling on yourself.
And it is not great
when your best evidence is,
"I think you can see it
on TV, right?"
That's the same level of detail my
parents would give to the question,
"What does John do for work?"
You can see it on TV, right?
He says it's comedy,
but we don't tend to laugh.
Because when
the accusation is terrorism,
you should need a bit more than
"the vibes are off".
Protesting, in and of itself,
is not a crime,
even if it makes people
uncomfortable.
Kind of like that DHS
guy's official portrait.
Not a crime,
but uncomfortable, right?
I don't like it,
but it's not illegal.
Now, to her credit,
that host repeatedly tried
to get more specifics from him,
but without much success.
So, what is the standard?
Is any criticism of the Israeli
government a deportable offense?
Like I said,
I think that at this point,
when he entered into the country
on a student visa,
at any point, we can go through
and evaluate what his status is
and the secretary of state…
Is any criticism of the US
government a deportable offense?
Is protesting
a deportable offense?
Like I said,
you're focused on protesting.
I'm focused on it's a visa process.
He went through a legal process…
Are you saying he lied
on his application?
He is a lawful permanent resident
married to an American citizen.
I think if he would have
declared he was a terrorist,
we would have never
have let him in.
I know that "if he'd just told us
he was a terrorist"
might sound like a joke,
but anyone who's actually been through
the U.S. visa process can tell you,
"Are you a member
of a terrorist organization?"
is genuinely one
of the questions they asked.
I've ticked that box so many times.
"No," by the way.
I've ticked it "no". I cannot
be clear enough about that.
But maybe the most chilling
statement this week
came from a White House official
who said,
"The allegation here is not
that he was breaking the law."
That's a pretty alarming thing to say
about someone you've just arrested
at his home
in front of his pregnant wife.
It seems that we've gone from
"innocent until proven guilty"
to "innocent but, you know what?
Get in the van anyway."
The administration's since pivoted
to arguing they're deporting him
under a provision of the Immigration
and Nationality Act
that gives the secretary of state
the power to deport
any "alien whose presence or activities
would have potentially serious"
"adverse foreign
policy consequences."
That clause
is incredibly vaguely worded.
While there is no clear precedent
for using it the way
the Trump administration is trying to,
as we are learning, they seem unafraid
to test out new precedents.
And Trump has already said, this is
the first arrest of many to come.
And look,
maybe you feel differently
about the Israel-Palestine
conflict than Khalil does.
Maybe you don't agree with
things that I've said about it.
But if someone can be deported,
as a green card holder,
for speech in support of Palestine,
or anything else
this administration objects to,
that should chill you
to the bone.
And I'll be honest, anyone who's been
through the U.S. immigration process
has probably had a lot of anxious
feelings stirred up this week.
I came here to start working
at "The Daily Show" on a visa.
When we started this show,
I had a green card,
and five years ago,
I became a citizen,
but I know what it's like to live
in constant fear
of being kicked out of somewhere
you see as your home.
That is what deep relief
looks like.
And look, this clearly isn't gonna be
the last assault on immigrants
or the right to protest
from this administration.
There is still a lot of uncertainty
about how this particular case
will play out in the courts.
But the public response
to this should be unequivocal.
Because this arrest
was a fucking disgrace.
Thankfully,
there've already been protests
and I hope that they get bigger
and louder in the coming weeks.
Because rights like freedom of speech
are a fundamental part
of living in this country
and if we do not protect them,
then unfortunately,
like the Teslas inexplicably for sale
on the White House lawn this week,
they could be going, going, gone!
And now, this.
And Now:
People in People's Ears.
One thing going really well
for them during the pandemic…
Kelly, unfortunately, I have
to interrupt you,
because there's a director in my ear,
so I can't hear you at all,
now you are!
All right, okay, go ahead.
This was a lovely chat, Tom,
and then someone jumped in my ear
and shouted "guest!"
really abruptly…
Just ruined the mood
of the morning.
Cassandra's in the control room.
Thank you for saving me just now.
I lost my words
because I had someone in my ear,
and I didn't hear
the introduction to this topic.
Our work at the ports has brought
down the dwell time,
the amount of time con…
…the amount of time containers
dwell on the ports…
I'm sorry,
somebody's talking in my ear.
Do you know…
These guys in my ear, Diana,
and it's not God.
It actually is a person.
But they think they're God.
Again, they're wrapping me.
They'd love to say that in my ear.
I'm getting a wrap.
Stop yelling in my ear!
Stop screaming in my ear!
I'm gonna send it back to you.
I've been told in my ear, wrap it up.
Somebody's saying
something in my ear, like, "stop".
I have two sets of producers
in my ear.
I have five different people
speaking in my ear.
I'm not sure anything
that you just said
and I think I need
to wrap this up.
We should bring David in.
What do you want to bring
me in about?
I don't know. Someone in
my ear said, "Bring David in."
Moving on. Our main story
tonight concerns sports:
the greatest activity you can do
with balls,
after my favorite activity:
reading.
That's right, reading with
my eye balls, the balls of the eye.
Reading.
I love to read pornography.
Specifically, we're gonna talk
about sports betting.
Picking winners and losers.
Even animals can do it,
like in this video
from the Audubon Zoo,
featuring Super Bowl picks
from a penguin, an aardvark,
and even this giraffe, who correctly
picked the Eagles to win.
And that wasn't just random,
by the way. Immediately afterwards,
it used its hoof to write in the dirt,
"Chiefs are playing a guard"
"at left tackle and are relying
way too heavily on the blitz."
So, it knew what it was doing.
But sports betting is clearly
not just for animals anymore,
as you've no doubt been reminded
by approximately 10 million ads.
You want to make every game
interesting?
Step one,
open the BetMGM sportsbook.
I'm loving
the live betting on DraftKings.
Guys, ESPN Bet is here,
finally a sportsbook
from your favorite sports brand.
We are all Caesars!
Only from FanDuel, America's
number one sportsbook.
Yeah, those ads are everywhere,
they feature every imaginable scenario,
from Jamie Foxx in what in any
other circumstance would be
a pretty great R&B video,
to America's whitest little brother
talking to himself in a mirror.
And you're not crazy for thinking
those ads are inescapable.
Sports betting companies
spent over 430 million dollars
on national TV ads last year.
And they can do that because
this is now a massive industry.
We talked a bit about
sports betting back in 2015,
and at the time, we focused
on fantasy sports websites,
and their efforts to circumvent
anti-gambling laws.
But since then, 38 states
have legalized sports gambling
and 30 states and D.C. allow some
form of online betting accessibility.
In fact, between 2018 and 2023,
nearly 300 billion dollars
has been wagered
on sports gambling markets.
And look, I'm not gonna sit here
and tell you gambling is bad.
It kind of is,
but I'm not gonna tell you that.
Gambling is also fun,
especially if you're good at it,
which no one is. But it is fun.
Playing poker with your friends,
taking part in an office
March Madness bracket,
even taking a weekend trip to Vegas,
for most people,
these can be fun, generally
harmless things.
But they also tend to be time
or location-dependent.
The thing is,
with modern betting apps,
you can gamble all the time,
on just about anything.
And people do, as this local
news story from Oregon shows.
Last year, Oregonians wagered
57 million dollars on table tennis,
making it the fourth-largest draw
for sports gamblers
behind professional basketball,
football and baseball.
To give you an idea
of how prevalent this is,
right now in Poland, which is,
I believe, 10 hours ahead of us,
there are three different live
matches going on.
Unlike other sports,
there's always action,
matches don't last long, and in-game
betting lines change fast.
One of the biggest bets,
February of last year,
in the wee hours of the morning,
a sports bettor in Oregon
put down 35,000 dollars
on this match in Poland
between two relatively unknown
players in an empty gym.
This is like the crack cocaine
of sports gambling.
Well, that is never a great sign!
No one ever uses "crack cocaine"
to describe something positively.
What more can you say
about Diane?
First teacher in the doors every morning
and the last to leave at night.
She genuinely cares
about her students,
she's basically the crack cocaine
of the science department,
and that is why she's
our teacher of the year.
Get up here, Diane!
Our students would do
literally anything for you.
Now, unsurprisingly,
the rise of online sports betting
has been found to correlate
with a rise in gambling harms,
with one study showing that,
in states that allowed it,
there was a 28% increase
in bankruptcies,
translating to "about
100.000 extra bankruptcies a year."
And given we're about
to enter March Madness,
one of the single biggest
gambling events of the year,
when over 3 billion dollars
is expected to be wagered,
we thought, tonight, it might be
a good time to look at sports betting,
and ask a few things:
how it became so ubiquitous,
why it can be so damaging,
and what fixes might be possible?
And let's start with the fact that,
until fairly recently,
sports leagues took great pains
to distance themselves from gambling,
even forbidding Las Vegas
from having its own sports team.
In fact, in 2003,
Vegas simply tried to buy a tourism ad
during the Super Bowl,
but the NFL rejected it
on the grounds that "the NFL has
a long-standing policy"
"that prohibits the acceptance of any
message that makes reference to"
"or mention of, sports betting,"
successfully solving the one
problematic thing about the NFL.
The shift from that point
to where we are now
happened both gradually,
and then all at once.
First, there were the rise
of those fantasy sports sites
like DraftKings and FanDuel.
And then, in 2018, this happened.
Now, sports betting
won't stay in Vegas.
The Supreme Court today
struck down a federal law
that required most states to ban it.
The six-to-three ruling declared
the federal law unconstitutional,
a violation of states' rights.
The ruling opens the door
to an explosion in betting
on pro and college games
of all kinds.
Okay, first, from now on,
all Supreme Court rulings
should be announced like that.
Like a detective spreading out
the blurry headshots of suspects
on his desk.
And while most of those faces
in the concurrence make sense,
Elena Kagan is a bit of a surprise.
Although, and I'm not saying this
has anything to do with it,
she apparently plays basketball on
a court in the Supreme Court building
and has, and I quote, "a devastating
layup and jump shot."
Cases come and go but ball is life.
The point is, that ruling
left it up to each state
whether to legalize
sports betting.
And those fantasy sports companies
were suddenly well positioned
to mount lobbying efforts
to get it passed.
And they weren't alone in that:
some team owners were on board too.
Here's the owner of the Washington
Capitals and Wizards,
making the case for sports betting
being legalized.
Let's bring these dollars into
the sunlight. Let's let it be regulated.
Let's let it be taxed.
Let's use it for the good
instead of calling it gambling and
gaming and giving it a bad name.
Wait, what?
I get the "let's do it legally
and tax it and everything,"
but for the record,
people call it "gambling and gaming"
because that is what it is.
You want to rename sports betting?
To what, exactly?
"Fun with numbers and screens?"
"Banks and balls?"
"Max?"
That last one is kind of taken,
but I know a guy who's probably
willing to sell it to you.
Now, in that owner's particular case,
his interest may have had
something to do with the fact
that the Wizards are an absolutely
terrible basketball team.
And a good way to get people
to keep watching teams, even bad ones,
is by letting them
put money on games,
as the commissioner of the NBA
openly admitted.
The data is clear that if somebody has
a bet on a game, even a small bet,
they're much more likely
to engage in that match.
They're much more likely to watch it.
They're more likely to watch it
for more minutes.
They're more likely to be
interested in the participants,
and to follow the sport.
So, there's no doubt there's
a business component to this.
He's right. Patrick Stewart's
tether is completely right.
People will always be more engaged
if they have a vested,
personal connection
in what they're watching,
whether that's someone who studies
a game more carefully
because they've got money
on the line,
or a person who is more invested
in a school play
because their child is in it,
all the way up
to the most involved spectator:
a parent who somehow has money on
the outcome of their kid's school play.
You put 20 dollars
on the Shrek musical?
You put it on Shrek to lose?
Buddy, seek help.
Allowing gambling was a big win
for sports leagues,
who not only benefited from
increased fan engagement,
they also got to enter
into lucrative licensing deals.
NFL alone made 132 million last year
from gambling-related sponsorships.
That is the equivalent
of adding two to three NFL teams
and their sponsorship revenues
to the league.
And it doesn't even count
the additional 120 million a year
the NFL gets from licensing their data
to sportsbooks to help set odds.
The influence of these companies
on sports now is just unmistakable
and it is not just the ads.
Logos of the companies
are on the field or on the floor,
on the uniforms,
and even on whatever the fuck those ice
scrapers are called at hockey games.
There are also sportsbooks now built
on the premises of Wrigley Field
and other venues,
and if you go to an Eagles game,
gambling QR codes
are displayed on scoreboards,
allowing you to make instant bets
on the next play
without leaving your seats.
Which, let me be clear,
I don't think is a good
idea in sports arenas,
but I would welcome it in restaurants,
so I can scan a QR code on the menu
and place a bet
on "daughter or girlfriend"
when an old, rich guy comes in
with a much younger woman.
Okay, let me see. Same hair color,
she's wearing sensible flats
and cutting his steak for him.
I'm gonna go all in on daughter.
Fuck! Oh, fuck!
And it doesn't stop there.
Broadcasters have got comfortable
with folding betting content
directly into their programming.
A look at our FanDuel live lines.
The spread at 13 and a half.
The over-under
for the Dodgers at 103.5.
Here's a look at the pregame
odds for first period.
Total goals, and tonight that
line was set at one and a half.
It is time for the big game playbook,
brought to you by ESPN Bet Sportsbook.
Our betting expert
Erin Dolan is here.
So, Erin, we are gonna pick wagers,
you'll have one, I'll have one,
Rex'll have one.
That'll be our parlay.
Come on! I don't want to hear from
the betting expert before a game.
I want the integrity of
the broadcast to be maintained,
right up until the moment
we get to see a breakfast pastry
descending into a giant toaster
and accepting its own death,
before emerging from it,
only to be horrifyingly devoured
by the victorious team.
That is what I want
from serious sports broadcasts,
and to its credit, the Pop-Tart Bowl
gave it to me.
The predictions of the most optimistic
team owners clearly came true.
Instead of gambling
happening in the shadows,
it is now firmly above ground, and
they're getting to profit massively.
But crucially, the fact it's now
available through apps on your phone
has fundamentally changed the nature
of betting, in some very key ways.
For decades, sports betting was limited
to betting on just the games:
who would win, how many
points the team would score,
who will cover the spread.
In-game betting allows the user
to bet throughout the game.
This is advertised at you
the whole game long.
It keeps you thinking about betting
and involved in betting
throughout the game.
And if your bet loses mid-game,
then you're pitched another bet
to try to recoup your losses.
It's true. You can be constantly
nudged to bet, on everything
from who'll score the next point,
to what color the Gatorade
they pour on the coach will be.
And look, insofar
as any gambling requires skill,
picking Gatorade colors
really doesn't.
You're not a brilliant strategist,
you just got lucky
and chose orange.
It's the skill of a giraffe
picking a Super Bowl winner,
without the sexual tension.
Respectfully, that's a lotta neck,
what goes on there?
Disrespectfully,
what those little horns do?
Apps also heavily push more
complicated types of bets to customers,
like parlays, where multiple
different things have to happen
for a bet to pay off.
For instance, you might
bet that the Warriors will win,
Steph Curry will score 30,
Draymond will get at least one three
and GPII will be dressed like
the basketball Hamburglar.
If all four of those
things happen, you win big,
but if only three hit,
you lose your whole bet.
People love parlays because there's
a chance they might pay off huge.
Companies love parlays
because they generally don't.
Experienced gamblers
actually call parlays "sucker bets",
because of just how
seldom they pay off.
In fact, one study of three states
with legalized gambling found that,
while parlays made up just over
a quarter of all money wagered,
they make up over half
these companies' revenues.
And what that means is,
ordinary people are getting exposed
to extreme levels of gambling
they might never have
otherwise encountered.
And it's now especially popular
among young men like this guy.
Chance Bolmer is in his last year
at the University of North Carolina
studying business.
And today's the first day
of March Madness.
How many bets did
you have today?
A lot. Dude,
I used all the promos today,
so, I don't know,
maybe 10, 12 parlays.
How important is it that you can
do this through a phone
as opposed
to going to a sportsbook?
It definitely makes me
a lot more inclined
if I do it from, like,
my phone or laptop
than, like, physically going
somewhere to place the bet.
How many times have you gone
and placed a sports bet somewhere?
Maybe never.
Right. Chance Bolmer was never
going to physically go somewhere
and bet in person.
How would he, when he'd have
to first find his keys?
Just based on Chance's general vibe,
he has no idea where his keys are.
Did he leave them
at Brian F.'s dorm?
Or Mike P.'s apartment? Or while
chilling at Brian M.'s house?
There's no way of Chance
knowing where those keys are.
But the promos he mentioned there
can be appealing,
a lot of these sites offer
free money if you sign up.
Although, you should know,
they have tons of fine print.
A lawsuit in Massachusetts alleges
that a DraftKings offer
of a 1,000 dollars bonus
was only redeemable
if a customer were to "deposit
five times that amount"
"and then, within 90 days,
place 25,000 dollars in bets."
And that's not the only way
young gamblers can get reeled in.
'Cause while some states
don't allow people
to sign up for sportsbooks
until they're 21,
there are apps specifically designed
to get around that.
I'm very excited
about March Madness.
19-year-old Chase Levasseur
loves sports.
He's too young legally to gamble
in his home state of Massachusetts,
but he gets a fix
with his friends on Fliff.
You're using a fake currency
that you turn back into cash
if you win, hopefully.
Fliff advertises as free-to-play,
though there's an opportunity
to buy Fliff Coins
and potentially win cash.
It's a sweepstakes model that skirts
most states' gambling regulations.
Age limit? 18 and older.
Yeah, it's not "gambling",
it's a social free-to-play sweepstakes
with micro-transactions that
pay out real cash if you win,
available to teens when their brains
are the most impressionable.
What could possibly go
wrong there?
Also, for what it's worth,
"Fliff" might be one of the most
upsetting words I have ever heard.
It sounds like either one of the most
innocent things imaginable,
like a helpful cartoon chipmunk,
or that little bit of flour
that's on top of freshly baked bread,
or something so disgusting,
it has its own PornHub page
with videos like "stepmom
Gressica Shyne gets fliffed"
"by personal trainer
and his college advisor, Rod Steel."
But whether you're wagering money
or Fliffbucks that can become money,
betting can change your relationship
to the sport that you are watching.
And that is something that's not lost
on professional athletes,
who can get a lot of gambling-related
abuse online,
as NBA player Tyrese Haliburton
points out.
If I were to look
at my mentions right now,
I'm sure the majority of them are
about me fucking up somebody's parlay.
More than likely, you know,
if I have a good game,
it's just like,
yeah, you're supposed to.
Bad game's like, why'd you fucked up
my parlay? It's like, I'm sorry, John.
Right, I can see
why that'd be annoying.
Even when you do your job right
people just jump into your mentions
with aggressive complaints,
whether it's fans yelling nonsense
at Tyrese over their stupid parlays
or viewers in my mentions
saying ridiculous things like
"talk slower"
or "for God's sake take a breath"
or "Hi, John, no idea if you'll read
this but I'm a speech psychologist"
"and what you're displaying
is something called 'pressured speech,'
"and it might be nothing but it's also
something linked to hypomania,
ADHD, and bipolar disorder."
"Please consider seeing a specialist
I'm begging you."
"Not a fan of the show
just concerned."
Just annoying nonsense bullshit
that superstars like Tyrese and me
have to put up with.
And all this gets especially grim
when you realize it's possible
to bet on college players, too.
That's about to happen
a lot over the next month,
especially because universities are now
partnering with betting companies
in exchange for millions of dollars.
And while superstars like Tyrese
and me can see random,
negative comments about
our performance
and shrug them off with our athletic
builds and toned shoulders,
it is harder for student athletes
to deal with harassment
that may be coming
from their own classmates.
In Ohio, there've been reports
of athletes "getting Venmo requests"
"from their peers when they lost
a game or didn't make a free throw"
and others have
received horrible messages like
"you deserve to get
unalive for blowing my bet"
and "I hope your dog gets cancer".
And look, I don't care who you are
or what the circumstances,
you should never, ever hope
a dog gets cancer.
Every dog is a good dog
who should not have cancer.
Now, a cat?
Also no, right? Of course.
Mostly no.
It sort of depends on the cat,
doesn't it? For example, this one?
Obviously not,
that cat shouldn't get cancer,
that's clearly a good kitty,
no cancer for you. Absolutely not.
Who could think such a thing?
Hard no again. Absolutely not.
In no world should that cat
have cancer.
Listen…
The point is,
that message is clearly awful.
But it's not just young athletes
who are having their lives
turned upside-down by these apps,
it's the people who use them, too.
So, let's talk about the damage here.
Because even studies funded
by the gaming industry
show that about 1% of U.S. adults
have a severe gambling problem,
and two to 3% have a mild
or moderate problem.
Those might feel
like small percentages to you,
but it's worth remembering
that amounts to somewhere
between seven and a half million and
10 and a half million people.
Basically, a population less than
Michigan but more than Tennessee.
And that's not a tragic side effect
of this industry,
it is baked
into the business model here.
The people who lose
the most money gambling
are the lifeblood of these apps,
as this expert explains.
86% of online gambling profits
come from 5% of the gamblers.
The gambling industry business
model, whether it's state lotteries,
regional casinos,
online gambling operators,
it's based on the addicted gambler.
The purpose of the industry is to get
you to play to extinction.
And that means
until all your money is gone.
Look, getting you to play
'til extinction is clearly awful,
but I would be remiss
if I didn't mention…
You're not seeing double there.
That is a different bald guy
in tiny little glasses.
This story is essentially populated
with dudes named Chase or Chance
and guys who look like they should
develop a machine to locate the X-Men.
I'm just saying, if you had the over
on "this episode will feature
an interview"
"with more than one bespectacled
Bezos clone",
congratulations,
you've won 10,000 Jizzlecoins.
They're like Fliffbucks,
but even more sexual.
And betting until all your money's
gone can be scarily easy to do
when the casino
is literally inside your pocket.
As one expert put it,
"You put the most addictive behavior
on the most addictive device."
"What could go wrong?"
Just listen to this man,
who started gambling in college.
Every deadline I set for myself, you
know, I'll stop betting when I turn 21.
I mean, that was a joke. Stop betting
when I graduate college.
Stop betting
when I start working.
Stop betting when I turn 22.
I blew through every deadline.
How did it affect
your relationships?
I would be visiting my girlfriend,
and I would just go in on my phone,
sit on the toilet,
rattle off 10 bets.
All of a sudden,
my girlfriend doesn't know it,
I have 2,000 dollars
in betting risk.
Those moments, I would think
to myself in the corner of my brain,
like, am I a sociopath?
Yeah, that is rough. The only thing
any guy should be doing
on their phone in the bathroom
at their girlfriend's house
is frantically Googling
"what is Summer House Bravo,"
"help, how do I talk to her best
friends and seem cool, Reddit."
But unfortunately,
that behavior is exactly what makes
someone like him a valued customer.
And apps even have ways
to turbocharge that behavior,
they'll throw perks at big spenders, or
even match them up with a "VIP host",
a contact who'll track their habits,
interests, and spending in real time
and reach out with action
they just can't miss.
They'll also give out tickets to
sporting events, and send gifts.
One lawyer that we talked
to told us about a man
who was addicted to gambling,
and at one point,
DraftKings sent him this box,
which when it opened,
glowed with a green light
and revealed a crown,
with the message,
"The crown is yours."
And it is wild to be sent
something essentially saying,
"Congratulations, you just lost a bunch
of money, here is a hat about it."
And it's not just bejeweled headwear.
One woman sued DraftKings,
alleging its VIP tactics led her to lose
about 153,000 dollars in four months.
Even as she was realizing
how deep in trouble she was getting,
DraftKings was sending her perks
like tickets to a Steelers game.
She actually took her son
along to that game,
leading to a pretty awkward
conversation.
At the game, her son noticed
that something wasn't right.
And I told him,
"It's from work."
And he said, "I didn't see any
of your coworkers here,"
"and I heard a lot of people talking
about gambling and DraftKings."
He's like, "Did you get this 'cause
you use the DraftKings app, Mom?"
Like, this is coming from…
At the time, he was 12. Yeah.
So, what'd you tell him?
I was completely honest with him,
and I said,
"Yes, and Mommy's gonna
stop using that app."
Yeah, that's not ideal, is it?
Kids at a football game should not
be questioning if they are only there
because of their parent's
gambling addiction.
They should be doing
what any kid does there:
trying to get on the jumbotron
by waving their arms around
like an inflatable flappy guy at a car
dealership. Let kids be a lot!
And it gets worse, though,
because despite her best efforts,
she didn't manage to stop using
that app.
According to her lawsuit,
at one point, she realized
she was about to miss a mortgage
payment and emailed her VIP host
to ask if DraftKings gave out loans
for that sort of thing, saying,
"Probably means I need
to quit gambling soon."
He initially wrote back, saying,
"I want to check in with you,"
"are you still playing within
your means/budget?"
But when she didn't reply
over the next week,
DraftKings allegedly sent six emails
with enticements to gamble.
And she says when she finally sent
her host a one-sentence reply reading,
"I am playing within my means,"
he sent her 250 dollars in credit
to, quote, "get you back in action."
The thing is, it's not like these sites
can't stop someone from gambling,
or slow them down,
if they want to.
It is widely known "many
U.S. sportsbook operators"
"boost profits by weeding out
winning customers."
And sometimes, they'll even try
and claw back winnings.
Take this man. He placed
3,000 dollars worth of bets
on a Women's World Cup game
that BetMGM was offering at 66 to one
and I'll let him take it from there.
I ended up winning
over 200,000 dollars.
Here is 6:45 in the morning
where my bets won
and the money
was paid out into my account.
He began the process
to first withdraw
the maximum amount of
100,000 dollars the next morning.
But when he checked the app
a few hours later…
I looked at my account again
and I saw that my balance was zero.
They had canceled
my withdrawal.
They had rescinded
all of the winnings.
After a couple of calls to BetMGM,
Benton received this email
from the company's online
gaming operations team,
saying it sincerely apologized
for the inconvenience,
calling what happened
an "obvious error",
meaning they voided the wagers 'cause
the odds were "clearly incorrect".
That is obviously infuriating,
but the most insulting part
might be the company apologizing
for "the inconvenience".
Stubbing your toe is an inconvenience.
Stuck in traffic is an inconvenience.
Having 200,000 dollars grabbed back
from you feels fucking criminal.
And while BetMGM
did end up paying that man,
they only did that
after he went to the media.
The point is,
the data collection that lets companies
weed out successful customers
could, presumably, help them identify
those with addiction problems
and direct them to help.
This man, a recovering addict,
took advantage of the U.K.'s public
information laws
to access the data that Flutter,
the parent company of FanDuel,
kept on one gambler there, and he was
startled by how much it revealed.
On this particular one, he played
slots for three to four days straight.
They knew the customer life stage
he was at. So, "win back,"
they described it, so people that
have given up gambling for a while,
and they're trying
to get them to come back.
There's also, like, 2,514 deposits
in a year, which is about seven a day.
So, these gambling companies
that know when we're most impetuous,
that has reams
and reams of data on us,
what kind of match is that
for the adolescent male?
It's not a fair wager.
Do they have enough data to pinpoint
potential problem gamblers?
Without a doubt. Yeah. They
know the people that are addicted.
Yeah, it should be pretty obvious
someone doing seven deposits
a day is addicted.
Anyone doing anything
on an app seven times a day
deserves a check-in.
If you post more than seven
Instagram stories a day
and you're not in Barbados
or at the "Cowboy Carter" tour,
Instagram should hold
an intervention.
And that is the thing,
every part of this system
is set up to reel gamblers in
and then keep them playing.
And the whole sports
ecosystem is now suffused with it,
from the ads, to the games themselves,
to even that journalist,
who, in a good piece about
the problems of sports gambling,
at one point
had to make this disclaimer.
Full disclosure, when I work
at The Tennis Channel, I sit here.
The DraftKings fun,
download the app…
That has got to be a demoralizing
thing to do.
It'd be like if I told you
after all these years
that I'd been sitting behind a desk
sponsored by the Sackler family.
It would make you
question some things.
The point here is,
it seems everyone in the sports world
has now become compromised
by an industry that's able to prey
on its most vulnerable customers
with incredible precision.
When you know all of this, you start
to understand where this woman,
a member of a Gamblers Anonymous
group, is coming from
when she talks about feeling
like a target.
When you
don't go to your drug dealer,
he doesn't usually show up
and knock on the door and say,
"Do you need something?"
And that's what they do.
Where is the concern for that person?
I understand it's a business, right?
But with drugs,
they hold doctors accountable
for prescriptions of opioids.
With bars, they've held bartenders
and restaurant owners accountable
for overserving a patron.
I'm accountable 100%
for being an addict
and falling into the path
and losing my way.
I'm responsible for that. But I'm not
the only one that's responsible.
Exactly. And I've got to say,
it's notable that you've seen people
in this story take accountability
for their gambling habits,
but I'm yet to see a single
team owner, TV exec,
or gambling app CEO say,
"You know what?"
"This might actually be our bad, too."
So, what do we do here?
I am not saying sports betting
should be banned completely.
It was around before it was legal
and even if you criminalize it,
it'll just keep going.
But it shouldn't be this easy
to lose this much.
And the thing is,
some states have laws in place,
they just don't enforce them.
In Iowa and Tennessee,
sports betting companies allowed
gamblers to put money into their
accounts with credit cards
even though
the state had outlawed that.
And in Indiana,
dozens of people who had enrolled
in a state program to block
themselves from betting
were nonetheless able to wager
hundreds of thousands of dollars.
States merely enforcing the laws
they have would be a good start,
but we clearly
need new ones too.
For instance, we could eliminate
in-game prop betting on college sports,
so that student athletes
are less likely to be sent
wishes for their dog's death
just because they missed a free throw.
We could also restrict
things like VIP programs.
The U.K. actually did that
in 2020,
requiring companies to do things
like check on whether gamblers
could afford the amounts
they were betting,
and regulators have since reported
a 90% reduction
in the number of
customers in VIP programs,
suggesting these programs
are preying on people
who cannot afford
to be a part of them.
Honestly, it feels like,
years from now,
we're gonna look back
on this era and say,
"What were we doing?"
I mean,
about a lot of things generally,
but in this case in particular.
And we can change
the trajectory here.
We did it
with cigarette advertising.
Anchors used to smoke and
advertise cigarettes on TV.
But once we saw the harm
they did,
we put limits on what the tobacco
industry was allowed to do,
and we made people
more aware of the risks.
And I would argue we should,
at the very least,
have some of the same
advertising restrictions on these apps
that we've put on cigarettes.
And until that time,
those ads should have to be
much more reflective of what these
companies actually do to people.
You want to make
every game interesting?
Step one: open the GriftKings
sportsbook app.
Step two:
throw some skin in the game.
Then, step three:
showtime, baby!
With GriftKings, I can bet
on all my favorite sports:
football, basketball,
Polish ping-pong.
Literally, any waking second
that I am physically able to,
I can gamble on something
somewhere in the world
that calls itself a sport.
With GriftKings, every
month can be madness.
You can bet on Swedish basketball,
marble racing, Twister, yeah.
The game Twister.
I just bet on some sport in Serbia
that I don't even understand.
Apparently, it involves two men
who slap the shit out of each other
with cold, uncooked salmon.
The whole thing
lasts 19 rounds.
And you see that guy right there?
He's got a gun. And it's loaded.
And that's part of it.
And you're not just betting
the final score.
You can bet on everything.
I'm talking touchdowns, TKOs,
RBIs, rebounds, balks,
bullseyes, submissions, king me's.
It's all part of the action, baby.
All I needed was for the Knicks
to beat the Sixers
by no less than three points,
but no more than seven,
for six specific players
to get more than 10 rebounds,
for Karl-Anthony Towns
to break his ankle,
for the stadium to run out
of pretzels in the third quarter,
six total kisses on the kiss cam,
and for one of the refs to be Asian.
- What?
- That's the thing!
You can bet on everything!
Look, if it had all happened,
I would have made 14 million.
- Did you?
- No.
And what did not making
14 million cost us?
Can you really put a price
on hope?
I can put a price on our mortgage.
Was the number close to that?
It was.
It was two of that number.
You'll get 'em next time!
Because with GriftKings,
anyone can be a winner.
I was a winner.
You see?
I won over 200K on one game.
I mean, it was a glitch
and I never got it,
but hey, in the meantime,
GriftKings says I can get
15 dollars in non-refundable tokens
as long as I spend 15,000 more dollars
in the next 10 business days.
When you're betting on your favorite
sports, it just makes it mean more.
Yeah it does!
I'm a massive Philadelphia Eagles fan,
so the fact that they won
the Super Bowl is huge for me.
Did the wrong player
score the touchdowns
and did they not cover
the spread?
And was my car repo'd
as a result of such actions?
Yes, but, you know,
fucking go birds.
When they send me
some of these bets,
it's like they know
exactly which one I'm gonna take.
We do. We know everything
about you.
Your favorite sports,
what time you sleep,
when your direct deposit hits.
- Hang on, what?
- But don't think about that.
Okay.
I'm a VIP.
They roll out the red carpet for me.
That is bad.
That is a decidedly bad thing.
They treat me like a winner.
Yeah, only because you
lose so much. You're a loser.
Would a loser have
been sent this crown?
Yeah. Absolutely, a loser
would have that child-size crown.
This is cool. VIP shit.
King shit.
Bet everything with GriftKings. Think
you'd be able to stop at any time?
We'll take that bet.
I don't know why it's so funny,
I'm drowning in debt.
That's our show,
thanks so much for watching,
we're off next week,
back March 30th. Good night!
Welcome to "Last Week Tonight"!
I'm John Oliver, thank you for
joining us. It has been a busy week.
Chuck Schumer and 10 Democrats
caved on a resolution
to fund the federal government,
Dr. Oz had his confirmation hearing
and the White House essentially
staged a Tesla promotional event,
complete with Trump carrying
around handwritten notes
about pricing like a car salesman
on his first day.
Meanwhile, federal workers continued
to be fired for no clear reason.
Though,
in the case of one pardon attorney,
there seemed to be
a pretty specific one.
Tonight, Liz Oyer says she lost her job
because she refused
to recommend that Mel Gibson
be allowed to buy a gun again.
The actor and a backer of the
president's lost that gun right
after he pleaded no contest to
a domestic violence charge in 2011.
When I came into work on Friday
morning, I said to a colleague,
"I really think that Mel Gibson
might be my downfall."
And within hours of saying that,
I was being escorted out of my office.
It is frankly incredible she got fired
because she didn't think Mel Gibson,
best known for his work
in screaming, should have guns.
If you've forgotten the specifics
of his various scandals,
I recommend you check out
his Wikipedia page,
and while you're there,
check out his dad's,
because the opening paragraph
alone is spectacular.
Hutton Peter Gibson was an American
conspiracy theorist, Holocaust denier,
writer on sedevacantism,
which is a belief
that there hasn't been a valid
pope since 1958,
a World War II veteran,
'Jeopardy!' grand champion for 1968
and the father of 11 children,
one of whom is the actor
and director Mel Gibson.
That is a fascinating man. And
imagine having so many terrible views
that producing Mel Gibson is not
the worst thing about you.
But we're gonna focus
on another bold move
the Trump administration
made this week.
Tonight, anger spilling onto
New York City sidewalks
after federal immigration agents
arrested Mahmoud Khalil,
who his lawyer says is a legal
permanent resident with a green card.
Khalil recently finished a master's
at Columbia and helped
lead pro-Palestinian
protests on campus.
His lawyer adding he was detained
on Saturday in front of his wife,
a U.S. citizen who
is eight months pregnant.
President Trump has vowed
to crack down on antisemitism
on college campuses.
Today he called Khalil's detainment
"the first arrest of many to come."
Okay, so there's a lot there.
First, Trump wanting to crack down
on antisemitism is pretty rich,
given a top DOD press secretary
was recently found to have
a history
of racist and antisemitic tweets,
Musk and JD Vance both recently
supported Germany's AFD,
a party with ties to neo-Nazis,
and of course there was this shit,
and that is all before you get
to their efforts this week
to make sure that this fucking guy,
whose views on the Jews
are, let's say, a matter of public
record, got his guns back.
Set all of that aside.
Clearly, you shouldn't be deporting
green card holders for their views.
And for what it's worth,
regardless of what others
may have said
or done during those protests,
Khalil explicitly said, "Antisemitism
and any other form of racism"
"has no place on this campus
and in this movement."
It's also notable some Jewish
students at Columbia rallied
in support of Khalil this week.
And while the word bitch
in me wants to point out
that's not how you spell
the word "fascism",
I don't want to draw attention from
the excellent "pigs aren't kosher" sign
just a few feet behind it.
That's the kind of pithy slogan
that would turn Don Draper's head.
He wouldn't hire a Jewish copywriter
until pretty late in the show,
but still,
put that in your book, kid.
Amid all the justified outrage,
it is notable how little rationale
for this arrest has been offered.
When Mike Johnson was asked
what specific crime Khalil
committed, this was his response.
If you are on a student visa
and you're in America
and you're an aspiring young terrorist
who wants to prey upon your
Jewish classmates, you're going home.
We're gonna arrest yourŧ tail and
send you home where you belong.
Okay. First, he's not on
a student visa anymore,
he has a green card.
Second, "aspiring young terrorist"
would be a great band name,
but it's an awful thing to call someone
who engaged in protected protest.
And finally, if you're gonna do
something this offensive,
don't get cute about it.
Just say "we're gonna arrest
your ass" like a fucking adult.
And it's not just Johnson
making big claims
about Khalil without support.
The Department of Homeland Security,
for instance, claimed
he "led activities
aligned to Hamas",
but when a DHS official was asked
to back up that assertion by NPR,
he had shockingly little
in response.
How did he support Hamas?
Exactly what did he do?
I think you can see it on TV, right?
This is somebody that
we've invited and allowed
the student to come into the country
and he put himself
in the middle of the process
of basically pro-Palestinian activity.
First, when the question is about
providing support for Hamas
and the answer
is "pro-Palestinian activity",
you are already
telling on yourself.
And it is not great
when your best evidence is,
"I think you can see it
on TV, right?"
That's the same level of detail my
parents would give to the question,
"What does John do for work?"
You can see it on TV, right?
He says it's comedy,
but we don't tend to laugh.
Because when
the accusation is terrorism,
you should need a bit more than
"the vibes are off".
Protesting, in and of itself,
is not a crime,
even if it makes people
uncomfortable.
Kind of like that DHS
guy's official portrait.
Not a crime,
but uncomfortable, right?
I don't like it,
but it's not illegal.
Now, to her credit,
that host repeatedly tried
to get more specifics from him,
but without much success.
So, what is the standard?
Is any criticism of the Israeli
government a deportable offense?
Like I said,
I think that at this point,
when he entered into the country
on a student visa,
at any point, we can go through
and evaluate what his status is
and the secretary of state…
Is any criticism of the US
government a deportable offense?
Is protesting
a deportable offense?
Like I said,
you're focused on protesting.
I'm focused on it's a visa process.
He went through a legal process…
Are you saying he lied
on his application?
He is a lawful permanent resident
married to an American citizen.
I think if he would have
declared he was a terrorist,
we would have never
have let him in.
I know that "if he'd just told us
he was a terrorist"
might sound like a joke,
but anyone who's actually been through
the U.S. visa process can tell you,
"Are you a member
of a terrorist organization?"
is genuinely one
of the questions they asked.
I've ticked that box so many times.
"No," by the way.
I've ticked it "no". I cannot
be clear enough about that.
But maybe the most chilling
statement this week
came from a White House official
who said,
"The allegation here is not
that he was breaking the law."
That's a pretty alarming thing to say
about someone you've just arrested
at his home
in front of his pregnant wife.
It seems that we've gone from
"innocent until proven guilty"
to "innocent but, you know what?
Get in the van anyway."
The administration's since pivoted
to arguing they're deporting him
under a provision of the Immigration
and Nationality Act
that gives the secretary of state
the power to deport
any "alien whose presence or activities
would have potentially serious"
"adverse foreign
policy consequences."
That clause
is incredibly vaguely worded.
While there is no clear precedent
for using it the way
the Trump administration is trying to,
as we are learning, they seem unafraid
to test out new precedents.
And Trump has already said, this is
the first arrest of many to come.
And look,
maybe you feel differently
about the Israel-Palestine
conflict than Khalil does.
Maybe you don't agree with
things that I've said about it.
But if someone can be deported,
as a green card holder,
for speech in support of Palestine,
or anything else
this administration objects to,
that should chill you
to the bone.
And I'll be honest, anyone who's been
through the U.S. immigration process
has probably had a lot of anxious
feelings stirred up this week.
I came here to start working
at "The Daily Show" on a visa.
When we started this show,
I had a green card,
and five years ago,
I became a citizen,
but I know what it's like to live
in constant fear
of being kicked out of somewhere
you see as your home.
That is what deep relief
looks like.
And look, this clearly isn't gonna be
the last assault on immigrants
or the right to protest
from this administration.
There is still a lot of uncertainty
about how this particular case
will play out in the courts.
But the public response
to this should be unequivocal.
Because this arrest
was a fucking disgrace.
Thankfully,
there've already been protests
and I hope that they get bigger
and louder in the coming weeks.
Because rights like freedom of speech
are a fundamental part
of living in this country
and if we do not protect them,
then unfortunately,
like the Teslas inexplicably for sale
on the White House lawn this week,
they could be going, going, gone!
And now, this.
And Now:
People in People's Ears.
One thing going really well
for them during the pandemic…
Kelly, unfortunately, I have
to interrupt you,
because there's a director in my ear,
so I can't hear you at all,
now you are!
All right, okay, go ahead.
This was a lovely chat, Tom,
and then someone jumped in my ear
and shouted "guest!"
really abruptly…
Just ruined the mood
of the morning.
Cassandra's in the control room.
Thank you for saving me just now.
I lost my words
because I had someone in my ear,
and I didn't hear
the introduction to this topic.
Our work at the ports has brought
down the dwell time,
the amount of time con…
…the amount of time containers
dwell on the ports…
I'm sorry,
somebody's talking in my ear.
Do you know…
These guys in my ear, Diana,
and it's not God.
It actually is a person.
But they think they're God.
Again, they're wrapping me.
They'd love to say that in my ear.
I'm getting a wrap.
Stop yelling in my ear!
Stop screaming in my ear!
I'm gonna send it back to you.
I've been told in my ear, wrap it up.
Somebody's saying
something in my ear, like, "stop".
I have two sets of producers
in my ear.
I have five different people
speaking in my ear.
I'm not sure anything
that you just said
and I think I need
to wrap this up.
We should bring David in.
What do you want to bring
me in about?
I don't know. Someone in
my ear said, "Bring David in."
Moving on. Our main story
tonight concerns sports:
the greatest activity you can do
with balls,
after my favorite activity:
reading.
That's right, reading with
my eye balls, the balls of the eye.
Reading.
I love to read pornography.
Specifically, we're gonna talk
about sports betting.
Picking winners and losers.
Even animals can do it,
like in this video
from the Audubon Zoo,
featuring Super Bowl picks
from a penguin, an aardvark,
and even this giraffe, who correctly
picked the Eagles to win.
And that wasn't just random,
by the way. Immediately afterwards,
it used its hoof to write in the dirt,
"Chiefs are playing a guard"
"at left tackle and are relying
way too heavily on the blitz."
So, it knew what it was doing.
But sports betting is clearly
not just for animals anymore,
as you've no doubt been reminded
by approximately 10 million ads.
You want to make every game
interesting?
Step one,
open the BetMGM sportsbook.
I'm loving
the live betting on DraftKings.
Guys, ESPN Bet is here,
finally a sportsbook
from your favorite sports brand.
We are all Caesars!
Only from FanDuel, America's
number one sportsbook.
Yeah, those ads are everywhere,
they feature every imaginable scenario,
from Jamie Foxx in what in any
other circumstance would be
a pretty great R&B video,
to America's whitest little brother
talking to himself in a mirror.
And you're not crazy for thinking
those ads are inescapable.
Sports betting companies
spent over 430 million dollars
on national TV ads last year.
And they can do that because
this is now a massive industry.
We talked a bit about
sports betting back in 2015,
and at the time, we focused
on fantasy sports websites,
and their efforts to circumvent
anti-gambling laws.
But since then, 38 states
have legalized sports gambling
and 30 states and D.C. allow some
form of online betting accessibility.
In fact, between 2018 and 2023,
nearly 300 billion dollars
has been wagered
on sports gambling markets.
And look, I'm not gonna sit here
and tell you gambling is bad.
It kind of is,
but I'm not gonna tell you that.
Gambling is also fun,
especially if you're good at it,
which no one is. But it is fun.
Playing poker with your friends,
taking part in an office
March Madness bracket,
even taking a weekend trip to Vegas,
for most people,
these can be fun, generally
harmless things.
But they also tend to be time
or location-dependent.
The thing is,
with modern betting apps,
you can gamble all the time,
on just about anything.
And people do, as this local
news story from Oregon shows.
Last year, Oregonians wagered
57 million dollars on table tennis,
making it the fourth-largest draw
for sports gamblers
behind professional basketball,
football and baseball.
To give you an idea
of how prevalent this is,
right now in Poland, which is,
I believe, 10 hours ahead of us,
there are three different live
matches going on.
Unlike other sports,
there's always action,
matches don't last long, and in-game
betting lines change fast.
One of the biggest bets,
February of last year,
in the wee hours of the morning,
a sports bettor in Oregon
put down 35,000 dollars
on this match in Poland
between two relatively unknown
players in an empty gym.
This is like the crack cocaine
of sports gambling.
Well, that is never a great sign!
No one ever uses "crack cocaine"
to describe something positively.
What more can you say
about Diane?
First teacher in the doors every morning
and the last to leave at night.
She genuinely cares
about her students,
she's basically the crack cocaine
of the science department,
and that is why she's
our teacher of the year.
Get up here, Diane!
Our students would do
literally anything for you.
Now, unsurprisingly,
the rise of online sports betting
has been found to correlate
with a rise in gambling harms,
with one study showing that,
in states that allowed it,
there was a 28% increase
in bankruptcies,
translating to "about
100.000 extra bankruptcies a year."
And given we're about
to enter March Madness,
one of the single biggest
gambling events of the year,
when over 3 billion dollars
is expected to be wagered,
we thought, tonight, it might be
a good time to look at sports betting,
and ask a few things:
how it became so ubiquitous,
why it can be so damaging,
and what fixes might be possible?
And let's start with the fact that,
until fairly recently,
sports leagues took great pains
to distance themselves from gambling,
even forbidding Las Vegas
from having its own sports team.
In fact, in 2003,
Vegas simply tried to buy a tourism ad
during the Super Bowl,
but the NFL rejected it
on the grounds that "the NFL has
a long-standing policy"
"that prohibits the acceptance of any
message that makes reference to"
"or mention of, sports betting,"
successfully solving the one
problematic thing about the NFL.
The shift from that point
to where we are now
happened both gradually,
and then all at once.
First, there were the rise
of those fantasy sports sites
like DraftKings and FanDuel.
And then, in 2018, this happened.
Now, sports betting
won't stay in Vegas.
The Supreme Court today
struck down a federal law
that required most states to ban it.
The six-to-three ruling declared
the federal law unconstitutional,
a violation of states' rights.
The ruling opens the door
to an explosion in betting
on pro and college games
of all kinds.
Okay, first, from now on,
all Supreme Court rulings
should be announced like that.
Like a detective spreading out
the blurry headshots of suspects
on his desk.
And while most of those faces
in the concurrence make sense,
Elena Kagan is a bit of a surprise.
Although, and I'm not saying this
has anything to do with it,
she apparently plays basketball on
a court in the Supreme Court building
and has, and I quote, "a devastating
layup and jump shot."
Cases come and go but ball is life.
The point is, that ruling
left it up to each state
whether to legalize
sports betting.
And those fantasy sports companies
were suddenly well positioned
to mount lobbying efforts
to get it passed.
And they weren't alone in that:
some team owners were on board too.
Here's the owner of the Washington
Capitals and Wizards,
making the case for sports betting
being legalized.
Let's bring these dollars into
the sunlight. Let's let it be regulated.
Let's let it be taxed.
Let's use it for the good
instead of calling it gambling and
gaming and giving it a bad name.
Wait, what?
I get the "let's do it legally
and tax it and everything,"
but for the record,
people call it "gambling and gaming"
because that is what it is.
You want to rename sports betting?
To what, exactly?
"Fun with numbers and screens?"
"Banks and balls?"
"Max?"
That last one is kind of taken,
but I know a guy who's probably
willing to sell it to you.
Now, in that owner's particular case,
his interest may have had
something to do with the fact
that the Wizards are an absolutely
terrible basketball team.
And a good way to get people
to keep watching teams, even bad ones,
is by letting them
put money on games,
as the commissioner of the NBA
openly admitted.
The data is clear that if somebody has
a bet on a game, even a small bet,
they're much more likely
to engage in that match.
They're much more likely to watch it.
They're more likely to watch it
for more minutes.
They're more likely to be
interested in the participants,
and to follow the sport.
So, there's no doubt there's
a business component to this.
He's right. Patrick Stewart's
tether is completely right.
People will always be more engaged
if they have a vested,
personal connection
in what they're watching,
whether that's someone who studies
a game more carefully
because they've got money
on the line,
or a person who is more invested
in a school play
because their child is in it,
all the way up
to the most involved spectator:
a parent who somehow has money on
the outcome of their kid's school play.
You put 20 dollars
on the Shrek musical?
You put it on Shrek to lose?
Buddy, seek help.
Allowing gambling was a big win
for sports leagues,
who not only benefited from
increased fan engagement,
they also got to enter
into lucrative licensing deals.
NFL alone made 132 million last year
from gambling-related sponsorships.
That is the equivalent
of adding two to three NFL teams
and their sponsorship revenues
to the league.
And it doesn't even count
the additional 120 million a year
the NFL gets from licensing their data
to sportsbooks to help set odds.
The influence of these companies
on sports now is just unmistakable
and it is not just the ads.
Logos of the companies
are on the field or on the floor,
on the uniforms,
and even on whatever the fuck those ice
scrapers are called at hockey games.
There are also sportsbooks now built
on the premises of Wrigley Field
and other venues,
and if you go to an Eagles game,
gambling QR codes
are displayed on scoreboards,
allowing you to make instant bets
on the next play
without leaving your seats.
Which, let me be clear,
I don't think is a good
idea in sports arenas,
but I would welcome it in restaurants,
so I can scan a QR code on the menu
and place a bet
on "daughter or girlfriend"
when an old, rich guy comes in
with a much younger woman.
Okay, let me see. Same hair color,
she's wearing sensible flats
and cutting his steak for him.
I'm gonna go all in on daughter.
Fuck! Oh, fuck!
And it doesn't stop there.
Broadcasters have got comfortable
with folding betting content
directly into their programming.
A look at our FanDuel live lines.
The spread at 13 and a half.
The over-under
for the Dodgers at 103.5.
Here's a look at the pregame
odds for first period.
Total goals, and tonight that
line was set at one and a half.
It is time for the big game playbook,
brought to you by ESPN Bet Sportsbook.
Our betting expert
Erin Dolan is here.
So, Erin, we are gonna pick wagers,
you'll have one, I'll have one,
Rex'll have one.
That'll be our parlay.
Come on! I don't want to hear from
the betting expert before a game.
I want the integrity of
the broadcast to be maintained,
right up until the moment
we get to see a breakfast pastry
descending into a giant toaster
and accepting its own death,
before emerging from it,
only to be horrifyingly devoured
by the victorious team.
That is what I want
from serious sports broadcasts,
and to its credit, the Pop-Tart Bowl
gave it to me.
The predictions of the most optimistic
team owners clearly came true.
Instead of gambling
happening in the shadows,
it is now firmly above ground, and
they're getting to profit massively.
But crucially, the fact it's now
available through apps on your phone
has fundamentally changed the nature
of betting, in some very key ways.
For decades, sports betting was limited
to betting on just the games:
who would win, how many
points the team would score,
who will cover the spread.
In-game betting allows the user
to bet throughout the game.
This is advertised at you
the whole game long.
It keeps you thinking about betting
and involved in betting
throughout the game.
And if your bet loses mid-game,
then you're pitched another bet
to try to recoup your losses.
It's true. You can be constantly
nudged to bet, on everything
from who'll score the next point,
to what color the Gatorade
they pour on the coach will be.
And look, insofar
as any gambling requires skill,
picking Gatorade colors
really doesn't.
You're not a brilliant strategist,
you just got lucky
and chose orange.
It's the skill of a giraffe
picking a Super Bowl winner,
without the sexual tension.
Respectfully, that's a lotta neck,
what goes on there?
Disrespectfully,
what those little horns do?
Apps also heavily push more
complicated types of bets to customers,
like parlays, where multiple
different things have to happen
for a bet to pay off.
For instance, you might
bet that the Warriors will win,
Steph Curry will score 30,
Draymond will get at least one three
and GPII will be dressed like
the basketball Hamburglar.
If all four of those
things happen, you win big,
but if only three hit,
you lose your whole bet.
People love parlays because there's
a chance they might pay off huge.
Companies love parlays
because they generally don't.
Experienced gamblers
actually call parlays "sucker bets",
because of just how
seldom they pay off.
In fact, one study of three states
with legalized gambling found that,
while parlays made up just over
a quarter of all money wagered,
they make up over half
these companies' revenues.
And what that means is,
ordinary people are getting exposed
to extreme levels of gambling
they might never have
otherwise encountered.
And it's now especially popular
among young men like this guy.
Chance Bolmer is in his last year
at the University of North Carolina
studying business.
And today's the first day
of March Madness.
How many bets did
you have today?
A lot. Dude,
I used all the promos today,
so, I don't know,
maybe 10, 12 parlays.
How important is it that you can
do this through a phone
as opposed
to going to a sportsbook?
It definitely makes me
a lot more inclined
if I do it from, like,
my phone or laptop
than, like, physically going
somewhere to place the bet.
How many times have you gone
and placed a sports bet somewhere?
Maybe never.
Right. Chance Bolmer was never
going to physically go somewhere
and bet in person.
How would he, when he'd have
to first find his keys?
Just based on Chance's general vibe,
he has no idea where his keys are.
Did he leave them
at Brian F.'s dorm?
Or Mike P.'s apartment? Or while
chilling at Brian M.'s house?
There's no way of Chance
knowing where those keys are.
But the promos he mentioned there
can be appealing,
a lot of these sites offer
free money if you sign up.
Although, you should know,
they have tons of fine print.
A lawsuit in Massachusetts alleges
that a DraftKings offer
of a 1,000 dollars bonus
was only redeemable
if a customer were to "deposit
five times that amount"
"and then, within 90 days,
place 25,000 dollars in bets."
And that's not the only way
young gamblers can get reeled in.
'Cause while some states
don't allow people
to sign up for sportsbooks
until they're 21,
there are apps specifically designed
to get around that.
I'm very excited
about March Madness.
19-year-old Chase Levasseur
loves sports.
He's too young legally to gamble
in his home state of Massachusetts,
but he gets a fix
with his friends on Fliff.
You're using a fake currency
that you turn back into cash
if you win, hopefully.
Fliff advertises as free-to-play,
though there's an opportunity
to buy Fliff Coins
and potentially win cash.
It's a sweepstakes model that skirts
most states' gambling regulations.
Age limit? 18 and older.
Yeah, it's not "gambling",
it's a social free-to-play sweepstakes
with micro-transactions that
pay out real cash if you win,
available to teens when their brains
are the most impressionable.
What could possibly go
wrong there?
Also, for what it's worth,
"Fliff" might be one of the most
upsetting words I have ever heard.
It sounds like either one of the most
innocent things imaginable,
like a helpful cartoon chipmunk,
or that little bit of flour
that's on top of freshly baked bread,
or something so disgusting,
it has its own PornHub page
with videos like "stepmom
Gressica Shyne gets fliffed"
"by personal trainer
and his college advisor, Rod Steel."
But whether you're wagering money
or Fliffbucks that can become money,
betting can change your relationship
to the sport that you are watching.
And that is something that's not lost
on professional athletes,
who can get a lot of gambling-related
abuse online,
as NBA player Tyrese Haliburton
points out.
If I were to look
at my mentions right now,
I'm sure the majority of them are
about me fucking up somebody's parlay.
More than likely, you know,
if I have a good game,
it's just like,
yeah, you're supposed to.
Bad game's like, why'd you fucked up
my parlay? It's like, I'm sorry, John.
Right, I can see
why that'd be annoying.
Even when you do your job right
people just jump into your mentions
with aggressive complaints,
whether it's fans yelling nonsense
at Tyrese over their stupid parlays
or viewers in my mentions
saying ridiculous things like
"talk slower"
or "for God's sake take a breath"
or "Hi, John, no idea if you'll read
this but I'm a speech psychologist"
"and what you're displaying
is something called 'pressured speech,'
"and it might be nothing but it's also
something linked to hypomania,
ADHD, and bipolar disorder."
"Please consider seeing a specialist
I'm begging you."
"Not a fan of the show
just concerned."
Just annoying nonsense bullshit
that superstars like Tyrese and me
have to put up with.
And all this gets especially grim
when you realize it's possible
to bet on college players, too.
That's about to happen
a lot over the next month,
especially because universities are now
partnering with betting companies
in exchange for millions of dollars.
And while superstars like Tyrese
and me can see random,
negative comments about
our performance
and shrug them off with our athletic
builds and toned shoulders,
it is harder for student athletes
to deal with harassment
that may be coming
from their own classmates.
In Ohio, there've been reports
of athletes "getting Venmo requests"
"from their peers when they lost
a game or didn't make a free throw"
and others have
received horrible messages like
"you deserve to get
unalive for blowing my bet"
and "I hope your dog gets cancer".
And look, I don't care who you are
or what the circumstances,
you should never, ever hope
a dog gets cancer.
Every dog is a good dog
who should not have cancer.
Now, a cat?
Also no, right? Of course.
Mostly no.
It sort of depends on the cat,
doesn't it? For example, this one?
Obviously not,
that cat shouldn't get cancer,
that's clearly a good kitty,
no cancer for you. Absolutely not.
Who could think such a thing?
Hard no again. Absolutely not.
In no world should that cat
have cancer.
Listen…
The point is,
that message is clearly awful.
But it's not just young athletes
who are having their lives
turned upside-down by these apps,
it's the people who use them, too.
So, let's talk about the damage here.
Because even studies funded
by the gaming industry
show that about 1% of U.S. adults
have a severe gambling problem,
and two to 3% have a mild
or moderate problem.
Those might feel
like small percentages to you,
but it's worth remembering
that amounts to somewhere
between seven and a half million and
10 and a half million people.
Basically, a population less than
Michigan but more than Tennessee.
And that's not a tragic side effect
of this industry,
it is baked
into the business model here.
The people who lose
the most money gambling
are the lifeblood of these apps,
as this expert explains.
86% of online gambling profits
come from 5% of the gamblers.
The gambling industry business
model, whether it's state lotteries,
regional casinos,
online gambling operators,
it's based on the addicted gambler.
The purpose of the industry is to get
you to play to extinction.
And that means
until all your money is gone.
Look, getting you to play
'til extinction is clearly awful,
but I would be remiss
if I didn't mention…
You're not seeing double there.
That is a different bald guy
in tiny little glasses.
This story is essentially populated
with dudes named Chase or Chance
and guys who look like they should
develop a machine to locate the X-Men.
I'm just saying, if you had the over
on "this episode will feature
an interview"
"with more than one bespectacled
Bezos clone",
congratulations,
you've won 10,000 Jizzlecoins.
They're like Fliffbucks,
but even more sexual.
And betting until all your money's
gone can be scarily easy to do
when the casino
is literally inside your pocket.
As one expert put it,
"You put the most addictive behavior
on the most addictive device."
"What could go wrong?"
Just listen to this man,
who started gambling in college.
Every deadline I set for myself, you
know, I'll stop betting when I turn 21.
I mean, that was a joke. Stop betting
when I graduate college.
Stop betting
when I start working.
Stop betting when I turn 22.
I blew through every deadline.
How did it affect
your relationships?
I would be visiting my girlfriend,
and I would just go in on my phone,
sit on the toilet,
rattle off 10 bets.
All of a sudden,
my girlfriend doesn't know it,
I have 2,000 dollars
in betting risk.
Those moments, I would think
to myself in the corner of my brain,
like, am I a sociopath?
Yeah, that is rough. The only thing
any guy should be doing
on their phone in the bathroom
at their girlfriend's house
is frantically Googling
"what is Summer House Bravo,"
"help, how do I talk to her best
friends and seem cool, Reddit."
But unfortunately,
that behavior is exactly what makes
someone like him a valued customer.
And apps even have ways
to turbocharge that behavior,
they'll throw perks at big spenders, or
even match them up with a "VIP host",
a contact who'll track their habits,
interests, and spending in real time
and reach out with action
they just can't miss.
They'll also give out tickets to
sporting events, and send gifts.
One lawyer that we talked
to told us about a man
who was addicted to gambling,
and at one point,
DraftKings sent him this box,
which when it opened,
glowed with a green light
and revealed a crown,
with the message,
"The crown is yours."
And it is wild to be sent
something essentially saying,
"Congratulations, you just lost a bunch
of money, here is a hat about it."
And it's not just bejeweled headwear.
One woman sued DraftKings,
alleging its VIP tactics led her to lose
about 153,000 dollars in four months.
Even as she was realizing
how deep in trouble she was getting,
DraftKings was sending her perks
like tickets to a Steelers game.
She actually took her son
along to that game,
leading to a pretty awkward
conversation.
At the game, her son noticed
that something wasn't right.
And I told him,
"It's from work."
And he said, "I didn't see any
of your coworkers here,"
"and I heard a lot of people talking
about gambling and DraftKings."
He's like, "Did you get this 'cause
you use the DraftKings app, Mom?"
Like, this is coming from…
At the time, he was 12. Yeah.
So, what'd you tell him?
I was completely honest with him,
and I said,
"Yes, and Mommy's gonna
stop using that app."
Yeah, that's not ideal, is it?
Kids at a football game should not
be questioning if they are only there
because of their parent's
gambling addiction.
They should be doing
what any kid does there:
trying to get on the jumbotron
by waving their arms around
like an inflatable flappy guy at a car
dealership. Let kids be a lot!
And it gets worse, though,
because despite her best efforts,
she didn't manage to stop using
that app.
According to her lawsuit,
at one point, she realized
she was about to miss a mortgage
payment and emailed her VIP host
to ask if DraftKings gave out loans
for that sort of thing, saying,
"Probably means I need
to quit gambling soon."
He initially wrote back, saying,
"I want to check in with you,"
"are you still playing within
your means/budget?"
But when she didn't reply
over the next week,
DraftKings allegedly sent six emails
with enticements to gamble.
And she says when she finally sent
her host a one-sentence reply reading,
"I am playing within my means,"
he sent her 250 dollars in credit
to, quote, "get you back in action."
The thing is, it's not like these sites
can't stop someone from gambling,
or slow them down,
if they want to.
It is widely known "many
U.S. sportsbook operators"
"boost profits by weeding out
winning customers."
And sometimes, they'll even try
and claw back winnings.
Take this man. He placed
3,000 dollars worth of bets
on a Women's World Cup game
that BetMGM was offering at 66 to one
and I'll let him take it from there.
I ended up winning
over 200,000 dollars.
Here is 6:45 in the morning
where my bets won
and the money
was paid out into my account.
He began the process
to first withdraw
the maximum amount of
100,000 dollars the next morning.
But when he checked the app
a few hours later…
I looked at my account again
and I saw that my balance was zero.
They had canceled
my withdrawal.
They had rescinded
all of the winnings.
After a couple of calls to BetMGM,
Benton received this email
from the company's online
gaming operations team,
saying it sincerely apologized
for the inconvenience,
calling what happened
an "obvious error",
meaning they voided the wagers 'cause
the odds were "clearly incorrect".
That is obviously infuriating,
but the most insulting part
might be the company apologizing
for "the inconvenience".
Stubbing your toe is an inconvenience.
Stuck in traffic is an inconvenience.
Having 200,000 dollars grabbed back
from you feels fucking criminal.
And while BetMGM
did end up paying that man,
they only did that
after he went to the media.
The point is,
the data collection that lets companies
weed out successful customers
could, presumably, help them identify
those with addiction problems
and direct them to help.
This man, a recovering addict,
took advantage of the U.K.'s public
information laws
to access the data that Flutter,
the parent company of FanDuel,
kept on one gambler there, and he was
startled by how much it revealed.
On this particular one, he played
slots for three to four days straight.
They knew the customer life stage
he was at. So, "win back,"
they described it, so people that
have given up gambling for a while,
and they're trying
to get them to come back.
There's also, like, 2,514 deposits
in a year, which is about seven a day.
So, these gambling companies
that know when we're most impetuous,
that has reams
and reams of data on us,
what kind of match is that
for the adolescent male?
It's not a fair wager.
Do they have enough data to pinpoint
potential problem gamblers?
Without a doubt. Yeah. They
know the people that are addicted.
Yeah, it should be pretty obvious
someone doing seven deposits
a day is addicted.
Anyone doing anything
on an app seven times a day
deserves a check-in.
If you post more than seven
Instagram stories a day
and you're not in Barbados
or at the "Cowboy Carter" tour,
Instagram should hold
an intervention.
And that is the thing,
every part of this system
is set up to reel gamblers in
and then keep them playing.
And the whole sports
ecosystem is now suffused with it,
from the ads, to the games themselves,
to even that journalist,
who, in a good piece about
the problems of sports gambling,
at one point
had to make this disclaimer.
Full disclosure, when I work
at The Tennis Channel, I sit here.
The DraftKings fun,
download the app…
That has got to be a demoralizing
thing to do.
It'd be like if I told you
after all these years
that I'd been sitting behind a desk
sponsored by the Sackler family.
It would make you
question some things.
The point here is,
it seems everyone in the sports world
has now become compromised
by an industry that's able to prey
on its most vulnerable customers
with incredible precision.
When you know all of this, you start
to understand where this woman,
a member of a Gamblers Anonymous
group, is coming from
when she talks about feeling
like a target.
When you
don't go to your drug dealer,
he doesn't usually show up
and knock on the door and say,
"Do you need something?"
And that's what they do.
Where is the concern for that person?
I understand it's a business, right?
But with drugs,
they hold doctors accountable
for prescriptions of opioids.
With bars, they've held bartenders
and restaurant owners accountable
for overserving a patron.
I'm accountable 100%
for being an addict
and falling into the path
and losing my way.
I'm responsible for that. But I'm not
the only one that's responsible.
Exactly. And I've got to say,
it's notable that you've seen people
in this story take accountability
for their gambling habits,
but I'm yet to see a single
team owner, TV exec,
or gambling app CEO say,
"You know what?"
"This might actually be our bad, too."
So, what do we do here?
I am not saying sports betting
should be banned completely.
It was around before it was legal
and even if you criminalize it,
it'll just keep going.
But it shouldn't be this easy
to lose this much.
And the thing is,
some states have laws in place,
they just don't enforce them.
In Iowa and Tennessee,
sports betting companies allowed
gamblers to put money into their
accounts with credit cards
even though
the state had outlawed that.
And in Indiana,
dozens of people who had enrolled
in a state program to block
themselves from betting
were nonetheless able to wager
hundreds of thousands of dollars.
States merely enforcing the laws
they have would be a good start,
but we clearly
need new ones too.
For instance, we could eliminate
in-game prop betting on college sports,
so that student athletes
are less likely to be sent
wishes for their dog's death
just because they missed a free throw.
We could also restrict
things like VIP programs.
The U.K. actually did that
in 2020,
requiring companies to do things
like check on whether gamblers
could afford the amounts
they were betting,
and regulators have since reported
a 90% reduction
in the number of
customers in VIP programs,
suggesting these programs
are preying on people
who cannot afford
to be a part of them.
Honestly, it feels like,
years from now,
we're gonna look back
on this era and say,
"What were we doing?"
I mean,
about a lot of things generally,
but in this case in particular.
And we can change
the trajectory here.
We did it
with cigarette advertising.
Anchors used to smoke and
advertise cigarettes on TV.
But once we saw the harm
they did,
we put limits on what the tobacco
industry was allowed to do,
and we made people
more aware of the risks.
And I would argue we should,
at the very least,
have some of the same
advertising restrictions on these apps
that we've put on cigarettes.
And until that time,
those ads should have to be
much more reflective of what these
companies actually do to people.
You want to make
every game interesting?
Step one: open the GriftKings
sportsbook app.
Step two:
throw some skin in the game.
Then, step three:
showtime, baby!
With GriftKings, I can bet
on all my favorite sports:
football, basketball,
Polish ping-pong.
Literally, any waking second
that I am physically able to,
I can gamble on something
somewhere in the world
that calls itself a sport.
With GriftKings, every
month can be madness.
You can bet on Swedish basketball,
marble racing, Twister, yeah.
The game Twister.
I just bet on some sport in Serbia
that I don't even understand.
Apparently, it involves two men
who slap the shit out of each other
with cold, uncooked salmon.
The whole thing
lasts 19 rounds.
And you see that guy right there?
He's got a gun. And it's loaded.
And that's part of it.
And you're not just betting
the final score.
You can bet on everything.
I'm talking touchdowns, TKOs,
RBIs, rebounds, balks,
bullseyes, submissions, king me's.
It's all part of the action, baby.
All I needed was for the Knicks
to beat the Sixers
by no less than three points,
but no more than seven,
for six specific players
to get more than 10 rebounds,
for Karl-Anthony Towns
to break his ankle,
for the stadium to run out
of pretzels in the third quarter,
six total kisses on the kiss cam,
and for one of the refs to be Asian.
- What?
- That's the thing!
You can bet on everything!
Look, if it had all happened,
I would have made 14 million.
- Did you?
- No.
And what did not making
14 million cost us?
Can you really put a price
on hope?
I can put a price on our mortgage.
Was the number close to that?
It was.
It was two of that number.
You'll get 'em next time!
Because with GriftKings,
anyone can be a winner.
I was a winner.
You see?
I won over 200K on one game.
I mean, it was a glitch
and I never got it,
but hey, in the meantime,
GriftKings says I can get
15 dollars in non-refundable tokens
as long as I spend 15,000 more dollars
in the next 10 business days.
When you're betting on your favorite
sports, it just makes it mean more.
Yeah it does!
I'm a massive Philadelphia Eagles fan,
so the fact that they won
the Super Bowl is huge for me.
Did the wrong player
score the touchdowns
and did they not cover
the spread?
And was my car repo'd
as a result of such actions?
Yes, but, you know,
fucking go birds.
When they send me
some of these bets,
it's like they know
exactly which one I'm gonna take.
We do. We know everything
about you.
Your favorite sports,
what time you sleep,
when your direct deposit hits.
- Hang on, what?
- But don't think about that.
Okay.
I'm a VIP.
They roll out the red carpet for me.
That is bad.
That is a decidedly bad thing.
They treat me like a winner.
Yeah, only because you
lose so much. You're a loser.
Would a loser have
been sent this crown?
Yeah. Absolutely, a loser
would have that child-size crown.
This is cool. VIP shit.
King shit.
Bet everything with GriftKings. Think
you'd be able to stop at any time?
We'll take that bet.
I don't know why it's so funny,
I'm drowning in debt.
That's our show,
thanks so much for watching,
we're off next week,
back March 30th. Good night!