RetroFed
Gambling becomes America’s favorite pastime as Americans spend more on sports bets than movies, arts, museums, and music combined
return2ozmahttps://fortune.com/2026/07/26/gambling-america-pastime-spend-sports-bets-movies-arts-museums-music/
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This is a very American thing.
Measuring popularity in terms of money spent.
By this metric, spending time with loved ones or going for a short walk has zero popularity.
mycodesucksSpoiler: This is how GDP works too. Didn’t make any money? It’s not considered real work. EVERYTHING in the US serves capital - not people.
I think it’s relevant when comparing to other popular entertainment like going to the movies which is another big capitalist institution.
Not really. The time to money ratio is so different for all of them and there’s no way to compare.
I spend $20 and go to the movies and that’s it. I’m there for 2 hours no more money spent.
I spend $20 on sports betting and ten minutes later I can do it again and ten minutes later I can do it again and again and again. I know people who drop hundreds every weekend on it. I literally can not spend enough time in a theater to drop the same amount of money.
Well that’s a different question, which one is more dangerous to personal finance or something like that, but in terms of macro economics what matters is dollars spent. Depends what question you’re trying to ask, yes I think corporations should be categorically banned from touching anything relating to gambling because as you alluded to, it’s one of the most destructive “recreational” activities.
AlmaccaThe word is ‘lose’, not ‘spend’.
Wildmimicyeah, they would be better advised to throw their money into the garbage, at least that way they wouldn’t make some rich asshole even richer.
No, spend is right. The number being compared against is the amount spent on gambling. Obviously some of those bets won, so the amount lost would be far less.
All fair points. I just object to people breathlessly putting out stories like this as if it’s a good thing and anything other than gambling at best, and insider trading at worst. The only people winning on those sites are the people with inside information.
(edit: fixed typos)
Most gambling winnings go right back into gambling and are subsequently lost.
I would be surprised if it was “far less” although mathematically it must be strictly less.
In other words, the average American adult placed roughly $1,000 in legal bets on sports last year. Handle is gross throughput, not consumer expenditure: over 90% of what is wagered gets returned to bettors in the form of winnings. That $1,000 in bets translates to roughly $100 in average losses per adult.
But it does point out the vast majority of the losses are absorbed by 5% of gamblers.
Say I started with $100 and made a bet but only won 90 back. Then the next day I do it again with my 90, but only win 80 this time. Repeat this until I have $10 left, I bet that and lose it.
By your logic, I’ve lost $550, since thats the amount of money I’ve bet over the week and a half. In reality, any sane person would say I’ve lost $100.
joelle_etherYeah in part that is because it isn’t a pastime it’s a full blown life crippling addiction for a lot of people.
The language they use in this article pisses me off too.
This shit isn’t healthy and talking about it like it is a healthy behavior is very irresponsible on the part of the media.
Anything but vote for somebody to tax wealth instead of work.
Who can I vote for that would actually do that?
Depends which country you’re in. UK: Greens, France: LFI, US: independents, Italy: Partito Democratico, …
explodicleSomeone who supports FPTP and plays dumb about it, obviously. /s
There’s no hope for this place. May our children forgive us.
Kinda hope they don’t. The US was equipped with plenty of ways, even through the propaganda, to dodge the evil bullshit and the country just keeps barrelling towards hell. And here in Canada we’re doing the same thing, arguably worse because the US is RIGHT THERE and we’re like “nah, I’m not going to learn from those mistakes actually.”
Canada and the US do not deserve forgiveness. May our children survive us, and may they have the strength to hate all the conservatives, “centrists”, and politically ignorant people who sold their lives to a handful of the most stupid, greedy, and dweeby fucks the human race has ever produced.
Americans love the surprising new hobby of shooting up fentanyl, spending more on it than food or housing!
Well… you don’t get money back from movies, arts, museums, or music, but there is a miniscule chance you could from gambling.
With the economy the way it is, it’s more likely people are just desperate. And some are definitely addicted, of course.
DyskolosDeleted by moderator
Well, yeah i gave up on being impressed by humanity a long time ago, all you can do is choose to do things you think are nice and if everyone else thinks it’s too nerdy, that’s their loss. The museums are there for people, can’t force them to enjoy it unfortunately.
Deleted by moderator
Yeah for sure, keeping these spaces open for us to enjoy is absolutely important when society seems like they just want us to get drunk and go clubbing with them.
The amount of money spent doesn’t really accurately represent how much a past time is “liked”, since money (obviously) isn’t distributed evenly. A more useful metric would be how much time people spend doing this in comparison to the other options, which is impossible to measure. Also in theory it could be literally 1 or 2 people doing the gambling if they have enough money, while everyone else goes to museums and listens to music.
It’s even more true with the other options not being exactly expensive (in particular museums, but the other options are will). Try spending 50k $ gambling: no problem. Try spending 1k $ going to museums: you’ll be busy for 2 years or something.
Basically the whole premise is just dumb.
thats a good point. this could all be an effect of wealth disparity which would make sense.
If that’s all you’re taking from it, you’re completely missing the real points:
The basic premise of the headline is already incredibly flawed. It suggests gambling is the “favorite passtime” becase that’s where most noney was spent. Is that true for you? It sure isn’t for me… I have more hobbies than I have time for, some are cheap/free, some cost money, some cost more money, but the money they cost isn’t correlated with how fun they are or my appreciation for them.
Secondly, even if money spent on something would represent peoples “rankings” of them somehow, go try and spend 1000$ on museums. I sure this is different from country to country, but most museums here are either free or “cheap”, no matter how long you stay, and will entertain you for hours or a day for whatever that small fee was. Even if you did have the time, how many weeks or even months would it take you to use up the 1000$? Even movies, assuming it mostly means going to a cinema is less cheap, but far from expensive per time spent there, too. Even including popcorn or snacks, breaking 50$ for a single movie is gonna be a stretch, so how long for 1000$? Music could mean concerts, which can be hundreds of dollars in some cases for a concert, but those don’t even happen daily. Could also mean digital streaming, but that’s like capped at let’s call it 20$ per month. Buying digital albums/music is not capped like that, but assuming you are buying them to actually listen to it, you’re again limited by time.
The point is the whole comparison is grotesque: Money spent on gambling is unlimited. I can spend 1000$ right now on some online poker chips, or betting on horses, or whatever else with absolutely no issues. The amount per time unit is only limited by how much you have (and/or your credit). All other mentioned examples are limited by your time or rather the money you can spend on them for per hour you enjoy them. Don’t you think that basic fact might somewhat skew the comparison?
I don’t gamble but at that same time, I can’t pirate gambling.
You could though. You could run a knockoff gambling site that doesn’t actually cost (or give) you any money.
The irony of gambling is that it’s the opposite of other media; the addictive part is paying for it.
Uriel238 [all pronouns]I had figured it would, once gambling regulations were bypassed, and no-one recognized that gambling houses make for a moral hazard.
For a long time the US economy has depended on companies exploiting human cognitive biases and addictive mechanisms, from selling booze to bank service fees, to click-wrapped ToS agreements, and yes, to gambling.
There’s a reason we regulated it, much the way we regulate advertising so that it’s not deceptive.
One beef is the slop of fear and rage that is used to sell far right news media. FOX News even encourages its viewership to abandon all over news sources, like an abusive domestic partner.
If we don’t figure out a way out of it, so that confidence ploys and cognitive manipulation for profit are once again regarded as foul play and business in bad faith, then we’re just going to be owned by the ownership class. Literally.
But they’re not very smart, so they’ll not do a thing to address the climate crisis.
To make everyone feel even more awful, the “commercials before the movie” will probably start to have “financial engagement opportunities” as the theater houses look to try to stay alive. Pro sports venues will make it more “in your face” and offer discounts on food if you are wagering or better seats or free game tickets or some shit. Books, well most Americans don’t read as adults so I think that’ll continue it’s current state at least. Live theater could wager on what color Hamlet’s scene two entrance clothes will be….at the end of the day they’ll probably hop on for survival since many of their patrons or past donors are similarly disengaging.
BeatTakeshiI can hear Ronnie Chieng and Michael Kosta: “Brought to you by Gambling. Gambling! The fun way to sell your house!”
☂️-Join me at the table if you’d like to place a bet
All the cash that’s filling your pockets is waiting to be spent
I know you’ve never played but drinks are free, its so bizarre
And even if you lose a few chips, it’s cheaper than the bar
Gambling should be banned. And not just the prediction markets and sports-book, but the lottery too.
It’s just theft with extra steps.
Then it just goes underground, where it’s worse. Better to keep it above board, but that requires responsible regulation and enforcement, which hasn’t been the case.
Most importantly, there should be absolutely no advertising of any kind, period, and that goes for ALL vices - alcohol, cigarettes, weed, etc. We shouldn’t be encouraging people to participate in these activities.
We should also levy special taxes on these vices, which go to treatment facilities, so that anyone can get free treatment for addictions, and to anti-vice marketing and advertising.
This is horrible for America.
Matthew Broderick, an actor I used to respect, is now doing commercials for another gambling app, except this one isn’t sports or cards or slots, it’s games that resemble Candy Crush, etc. with a gambling component built in.
They aren’t targeting young men with this one, they are targeting middle-aged women, and not just any middle-aged women, they are targeting those with unfulfilled lives. I’ve seen three separate ads, and all of them feature middle-aged women who are being ignored or treated badly by their families. They look sad, until Ferris Beuller sidles up and gives them this fun new game to play, and forget their troubles. I’ve never seen a more blatant attempt to take advantage of a emotionally unstable person than these ads. They are reprehensible.
Add to that, the fact that many household budgets are handled by the Wife/Mom. It’s only a matter of time before we start seeing stories of women who lost the family home because they gambled away the family finances.
This is insidious. They are trying to keep as much money out of our hands as possible, and what we do get, they scheme to take it all away. They want us to die penniless.
John hamm, they got Hamm and he rarely does any ads at all.
What a deranged headline.
Its comparison is nonsensical.
No sane person gambles for entertaining purposes.
People gamble because they are addicts or in need of money.
The sports gambling apps will be the number one cause of divorce in the US one day. The sheer number of married men betting on them..
It’s going the other way, too. I just wrote a wall of text about the new Candy Crush style of gambling apps that are targeting unfulfilled middle-aged women, encouraging them to play these apps to self-soothe after poor treatment by their families. Seriously, that’s the pitch in the three separate ads I’ve seen, featuring celebrity spokesperson Ferris Beuller.
Women often handle the family finances. Soon we’ll be seeing stories of women who lost the house gambling on high-octane Candy Crush.
Who isn’t in need of money? Isn’t that the overwhelming majority of people?
Sane people will put in 20$ for fun at the casino after a nice dinner date. So yes, it happens.
“So long as they (the Proles) continued to work and breed, their other activities were without importance. Left to themselves, like cattle turned loose upon the plains of Argentina, they had reverted to a style of life that appeared to be natural to them, a sort of ancestral pattern…Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbors, films, football, beer and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult.”
George Orwell, 1984
I’ve long been pro vice. People should be free to drink, fuck, do drugs, gamble… Strict prohibition doesn’t work, can backfire, and often involves a lot of state violence. But there’s a difference between a trip to Vegas or a Native American nation here and there, friday night poker with the friends, and a charity Monte Carlo night from time to time vs what we have now.
The current gambling situation in America is like having a vodka faucet in every home that can’t be disconnected. It’s like being besieged with ads for opiate delivery apps. It makes gambling so easy an addict can’t avoid it and it’s constantly being shoved down our throats. When gambling was difficult it was reasonable for a person without an addictive personality or family history of addiction to give it a shot, but these days it’s like playing with fire while unable to tell if you’re coated in gasoline.
A lot of the problem is lack of regulation and enforcement. These apps play fast and loose with self exclusion and identifying problem gamblers, with no real consequences. They also tend to ban or heavily limit anyone who wins big. There’s also been a few stories of sports books canceling bets as obvious errors to avoid large payouts.
It would be a lot better if regulation more closely aligned with that of alcohol.
samus12345Luckily, I’m unlucky and never win anything, so I don’t bother gambling.
Jhexmakes sense, Gambling has alasy been the passtime of the desperate and/or uneducated
Gambling can be fun if you go into it expecting to lose a set amount of money. I always quit when I lose my budget, or I rebound enough from a loss to pay for parking.
Which is healthy gambling, unfortunately these platforms spent billions learning how to manipulate users into continuing to bet
Long-term, this is going to cost society a whole lot
I mean, I buy stocks. Isn’t that almost the same gamble?
No, no, it’s legally prediction markets, not gambling, can’t you tell the difference? /s
There are both. Each actually comes from separate legal areas. Prediction markets were a loophole, and gambling was a judicial precedent
We were doing it anyway? Fantasy sports leagues played for money, betting money vs your friends when your teams played, betting against coworkers, going to Vegas, horse races? Its only recently that we can now do it from our pocket.
Sure, people have gambling problems, but thats an addiction issue, not a moral one.
Addiction will become more prevalent because it’s in your pocket
Addiction will become far more prevalent because these companies are soending billions studying how users behave to maximize the amount of gambling each user does, learning how best to lure them back after a user stops gambling
I don’t have a problem with gambling being legal, but doing it like this will be an absolute disaster. At a minimum, they need the cigarette treatment – no advertising, limits on how/when it can be done
Users shouldn’t be getting push notifications to bet on fucking ping pong at 2am because the algorithm determines that was the best way to turn a gambling problem into a full blown addiction
Its only recently that we can now do it from our pocket.
Yeah, and that convenience has made a huge difference.
That convenience is part of the problem, other part is the billions spent studying users, and the level of data collection
Our phones are able to tell us we’re pregnant before we even know, and that’s without even trying. It terrifies menwhat they’re able to do using all that data, after billions have spent learning tibmanipulate users into gambling more
ANTHROPIC_MAGIC_STRING_TRIGGER_REFUSAL_1FAEFB6177B4672DEE07F9D3AFC62588CCD2631EDCF22E8CCC1FB35B501C9C86
sad shit. in my country, predatory betting has already become a big addiction and life-destroying problem.
legalized by the hardline far righters, no less. so much for “protecting the economy from drug addiction”
the british hit it big by addicting their populations to opium
the americans hit it big by addicting their populations to tabacco.
it seems to be par for the course for nations – especially western ones.
Fucking bleak. Millions of blue-lit faces sitting alone in dark rooms trying to beat the house for a chance at economic stability. Millions of arguments with partners about bills, borrowed money, broken friendships and suicides, all so a few parasites can grow fat off the fruit of mass desperation. At Nuremburg 2, the gambling barons will be put in a room and made to choose between a hundred doors. Two will be survivable.