Chris Christie, The New York Times; Chris Christie: Keep Sports Betting Legal
Mr. Christie served as governor of New Jersey from 2010 to 2018. After leaving office, he served as an adviser to DraftKings until 2021.
"It’s time we recognize that legal sports betting brings with it effective regulation that protects fans, teams, leagues and sports themselves — and work together to protect and build on that success."
JULIE O'DONOGHUE, Louisiana Illuminator; In Louisiana, casinos can’t make political donations, but sportsbooks can, ethics board says
"Louisiana prohibits casino companies and executives from making state political contributions, but that same ban doesn’t apply to sports gambling operations, according to the Louisiana Board of Ethics.
A sport betting company and its senior management can still make political donations, even if the business is a subsidiary of a larger gambling enterprise prohibited from doing so.
The ethics board issued an advisory opinion last week to American Wagering Inc., saying the company, as well as its officers and directors, can legally give to political candidates. The activity is allowed even though the business, which goes by the name Caesars Sportsbook Louisiana, is owned by the gambling conglomerate, Caesars Entertainment Inc."
David A. Graham, The Atlantic; Baseball’s Big Whiff on Gambling
"Gambling is a numbers game, so here are a few: The pitcher Emmanuel Clase’s 2025 salary from Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Guardians is $4.5 million dollars. This weekend, prosecutors unveiled charges that he had made just $12,000 from two recent rigged pitches. And he could face as many as 65 years in prison (though such a stiff sentence seems unlikely).
Clase and the fellow Guardians hurler Luis Ortiz were indicted last week for their involvement in the scheme, which allegedly netted bettors hundreds of thousands of dollars. (Attorneys for Clase and Ortiz have denied the allegations.) The scheme outlined in the indictment is the latest instance of legalized gambling’s corrosive influence on professional sports. Major leagues have welcomed the industry with open arms and greedy palms, signing contracts with betting companies and bringing casinos into stadiums and arenas, but they act astonished when gambling starts to corrupt their own players."
Jonathan D. Cohen and , The New York Times ; Gambling. Investing. Gaming. There’s No Difference Anymore.
[Kip Currier: It's good to see online gambling issues getting more attention, as in this 10/20/25 New York Times Op-Ed. One of the piece's writers is Jonathan D. Cohen, author of the 2025 book “Losing Big: America’s Reckless Bet on Sports Gambling".
I spoke on these issues in my talk -- AI Gambling Thirst Traps and God: Christian Imperatives, Church Roles, and Ethical Responsibilities -- at the September 2-5, 2025 Faithful Futures: Guiding AI with Wisdom and Witness conference in Minneapolis. A publication based on the talk is forthcoming.]
[Excerpt]
"If it feels as if gambling is everywhere, that’s because it is. But today’s gamblers aren’t just retirees at poker tables. They’re young men on smartphones. And thanks to a series of quasi-legal innovations by the online wagering industry, Americans can now bet on virtually anything from their investment accounts.
In recent years, this industry has been gamifying the investing experience; on brightly colored smartphone apps, risking your money is as easy and attractive as playing Candy Crush. On the app of the investment brokerage Robinhood, users can now buy stocks on one tab, “bet” on Oscars outcomes on another, and trade crypto on a third.
Given a recent explosion in unsafe gambling and growing evidence of severe financial harm, one might ask whether the government should be permitting 18-year-olds to effectively bet on the Dallas Cowboys with the same accounts they can use to invest in Coca-Cola. Under President Trump, who has a son serving as an adviser to two entrants in the sports prediction marketplace, the answer appears to be a firm yes."
Jackie Snow, Quartz; America goes gambling
[Kip Currier: This Quartz article America Goes Gambling is a timely one about a significant AI-driven development: massive growth in online gambling, sports betting, and gambling addictions after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a de facto ban on these activities (outside of Nevada and tribal casinos) in 2018's Murphy v. NCAA decision.
I spoke on the issue of AI-enhanced online gambling and sports betting at the September 2025 Faithful Futures: Guiding AI with Wisdom and Witness conference in Minneapolis and am currently finishing a chapter for publication on this emerging topic.]
[Excerpt]
"On any given Sunday this football season, Americans are placing millions in legal sports bets, a level of widespread wagering that would have been almost impossible a decade ago when only Nevada offered legal sportsbooks.
Today's football slate represents the peak of a sports betting boom that has fundamentally altered how Americans watch games. Sunday's action is part of an industry that's grown from $4.9 billion in total annual wagers in 2017 to almost $150 billion in 2024. But beneath the Sunday spectacle lies a growing concern about addiction specialists reporting record demand for gambling help as the line between sports entertainment and financial risk becomes increasingly blurred.
The transformation has been swift and dramatic. When the Supreme Court struck down the federal sports betting ban in Murphy v. NCAA in 2018, legal sports betting was confined to Nevada and tribal casinos. Today, legal sports betting operates in 39 states and Washington, D.C., with more statehouses considering laws that would greenlight it."
DAVID WEISENFELD, ABA Journal ; All About the Action: Are lawyers more at risk for gambling addiction?
"“Something about gambling draws in certain types of lawyers,” Levant says. But the same things that make them successful in the courtroom can turn against them with gambling and make them vulnerable to wins and losses, he notes."
Alisha Katz, University of Florida, Phys.org; AI is transforming gambling: Researcher explores the ethical risks
[Kip Currier: It's good to see the increasing use of AI in online gambling getting more attention and scrutiny. The AI chapter of my forthcoming Ethics, Information, and Technology book for Bloomsbury also examines this worrisome intersection of AI, ethics, the online gambling/gambling industry, and gamblers themselves, some of whom are particularly vulnerable to AI-assisted manipulation efforts.
Imagine an AI system that knows when a habitual online gambler tends to place bets, what games they like to play and put money on, how much and where they gamble, etc. Couple that data with easily attained demographic profile data (often freely given by users when they sign up for online access), like age, gender, occupation, income level, and place of residence. Those individual data points enable a multi-faceted marketing profile to be rendered about that gambler.
Now, consider the above scenario but the individual is a repeat online gambler who's been trying to stop gambling. They're attending Gamblers Anonymous meetings (which the AI systems likely do not know) but are being methodically targeted on their smartphones by AI systems that know exactly what to send that person to lure them back in to the gambling world if they haven't been engaging in online betting for a while. That scenario is real. 60 Minutes reported on it in 2024:
Technology has fueled a sports betting boom and a spike in problem gambling, addiction therapist warns. June 30, 2024. 60 Minutes]
[Excerpt]
"As gamers and spectators prepare for the 2025 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas on May 27, a cultural conversation around AI and ethics in gambling is brewing.
Though the gambling industry is expected to exceed $876 billion worldwide by 2026, there is a growing concern that unregulated AI systems can exploit vulnerable individuals and profit from them.
UF researcher Nasim Binesh, Ph.D., M.B.A., an assistant professor in the UF College of Health & Human Performance's Department of Tourism, Hospitality & Event Management, is exploring this concern, having published a study in the International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration about identifying the risks and ethics of using AI in gambling."
