Just universities? They bet all the way down to K12 as kids run around in trash bags to make a weight class. (Or at least, that's how it was in the 2000s.)

Yes - it seems fundamentally misaligned with the academic mission of a university. Especially a sport like football with no willingness to address the known brain damage and other physical harm endured by athletes. When you add on athletic scholarships, different rules and standards for athletes, and the opportunity cost to one’s education on single tracking for a sport, it really starts to make less sense for many individuals and the institution.

It does seem that corporate regulation, including higher education (both for-profit and "non-profit but we have D1 football") and healthcare, is ineffective in the US.

Some regulations that seem to work pretty well: airline safety, food safety, cosmetic product safety, factory work hours.

Sports betting leads to all sorts of crime outside the casinos involving innocent people. Bribes, fixed games, injuring athletes, and doping have more incentives to happen with less scrupulous actors. It’s not hard to imagine a college athlete getting more than his entire scholarship to throw one game.

I would have actually voted for the Indian gaming ballot initiative if it didn’t include sports betting this year. I’d just like to keep the social problems of gambling confined to people who actually go to casinos (and their families too, of course, but criminalizing is probably worse).

Yeah, I don't want to hear another word about how this is amateur sports and that that means that the athletes should not get paid.

Don't forget NCAA arguing that paying athletes would somehow taint the experience (by taking money from the corporations).

We are all being preyed upon. The vampire lords are sucking their thralls dry.

Read Michael Hudson and you'll understand.

I personally would be more charitable with those collaborations were it for the fact that I do not see a real drop for me in real estate taxes ( vis-a-vis state lotteries ) or college cost ( like the one article mentions ).

And here is the kicker. Basic search notes that in-state after aid tuition stands at[2]:

$19,058 ( in fairness, there are some spreads depending on income )

Aid includes grants and scholarships from the institution, state, and federal government. And it is an estimate, because in a true MBA fashion everything was done to make the actual cost as difficult to decipher as possible[3].

And just to add to this. This particular institution is not exactly hurting for money[1]. Their endowment is over 1 billion. You would think they do not need to collaborate.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_State_University [2]https://admissions.msu.edu/cost-aid# [3]https://ctlr.msu.edu/COStudentAccounts/TuitionFees/Resident_...

Diversity and Inclusion programs.

https://archive.ph/nCyhM

I think a lot of people take that view.

Morality aside, gambling, including sports gambling, creates measurable social harm.

Similarly, I do not have a moral problem with opioids. But they have a measurable social harm.

Marketing those products to college-age students does not benefit society in the long term.

If the general population cared as much for education as much as they do their high school and college sports, we'd fix our education problems overnight. We can defund anything you want in our public high schools, but touch the football team and watch out.

Related ongoing thread;

A lobbying blitz made sports betting ubiquitous - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33684467 - Nov 2022 (18 comments)