The Sports Betting Series: Part 1 – Natural Irrationality

This is the beginning of a series of episodes that seek to give the listener a much clearer understanding of sports betting. Gambling as an industry is often reviled yet continues to grow. This growth guarantees more people will fall foul of its most negative aspects such as debt and addiction. From the outside, it is easy to say that only fools gamble, but such stigmatization of the victims and overconfidence against gambling’s ruses has left a culture where most are unprepared to deal with the constant gambling persuasions. In reality, nobody is immune.

In this series, I will attempt to provide you with a foundation - a small shield in the face of so many companies spending so much money to get as many people as possible to gamble. This involves a look at gambling as a whole before focusing on sports betting. I am in no way advocating for gambling or to degrade those who partake. What I do want though is a deep collective understanding of what gambling is, so that it is regulated and taxed properly, that many of the negative side-effects are prevented, and that we offer intervention, compassion, and guidance to those who do overindulge.

This first part looks at our shared ‘natural irrationality’. We are all sometimes at the mercy of our emotions and the quirks in the way humans think mean we will make choices despite pure mathematics advising against it. We also review the many fallacies that we tell ourselves when playing games of chance. Enjoy!