This is not going to be a long post, but I saw something and just had to share it.
I have alerts set up for all sorts of gambling content. So this morning I saw this headline:
Sports betting is worse than Oxycontin
I am not even sure I should link to it, but here it is just so you can verify it exists. The word salad that follows the headline isn’t much better. The author also conflates sports betting handle and revenue, another sure sign he has no idea what he is talking about.
Clearly, sports betting and gambling, in general, are not risk-free, and problem gambling can lead to suicide and other bad outcomes for gamblers themselves and their loved ones.
But it is not the opioid crisis, which recently claimed more than 100,000 lives over a 12-month period. To say gambling is worse than this is obviously clickbait that unfortunately I fell for and felt the need to refute.
Thank you to this author who contributed one of the worst pieces of writing we have ever seen on gambling. You are not a serious person.
The source you cite cites another article which looks like the source of the sportsbetting-oxycontin analogy: "Brian Hatch, a recovering gambling addict who’s now an addiction counselor in Hartford, Connecticut, compared the rise of sports betting to the opioid crisis. Referring to the family behind Purdue Pharma, Hatch told me: 'This industry is profiting off of people with an addiction the same way the Sackler family profited off of opioids. Opioids were pushed by the drug companies and doctors relentlessly. Gambling is pushed by the industry and state governments.'” That seems like a legitimate analysis that bears further discussion.