It’s been many years now since I have switched to listening to podcasts from listening to music. Whenever I travel to work or other places that is a good time when I listen to podcasts. There are many podcasts I love listening to, one is by Bill Simmons, and the Ringer podcast. He is great in both sports and movie/series podcasts. One thing I do not like is that he speaks a lot about gambling related to sports. I understand in the US there is a culture more than the Asian side where they always gamble, they gamble in everything. So there can be multiple bets on a single game. I think up to a point it is fine. But now all these big betting companies are taking over the sports. They sponsor the game itself, and all its related companies, like they give big money to the Ringer, ESPN, etc. Currently, it is everywhere in US sports.
Many issues come with it, and there is an inherent risk with the culture of gambling. You can lose a lot of wealth doing this, it may sound fun and game initially, but then it becomes addictive. The second is people involved in the sports, gamble in it, so they are compromised. If you are a player and you know the stake involved in a game you get to profit hugely in how it goes. Then you might not perform as well sometimes. Then the integrity of sports is compromised.
Recently a big gambling scandal broke out, Shohei Ohtani who by all accounts is a model sports superstar, well loved by all. His interpreter was caught gambling, and for a time being there were big questions as to how much Shohei knew about it or was involved in it. It was later found that his interpreter cheated him. I would not be surprised if one day it is found that a big star is involved in it, cause the money is so big now. That would kill the game. It would be my wish for the influx of cash from Betting/Gambling sites to come down, and for sports and its related network(people I love listening to) to be less involved with it, but that is wishful thinking, when have people, corporations ever turned down money!