Thunderstorms, some heavy during the morning hours, then skies turning partly cloudy during the afternoon. High around 85F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected..
A few clouds. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 68F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph.
Updated: September 22, 2023 @ 4:47 am
It’s NCAA tournament time, which brings to mind gambling. The office pool, the family bracket contest… it’s become a part of the culture.
What’s new this year is the game-by-game chance to gamble, legally. In fact, the government collects money from that gambling, so in a way it has a vested interest in you doing so. It’s the same as liquor and cigarettes – the government might promote messages of abstinence, but it keeps cashing the checks. Next up, of course, is marijuana.
I gagged a little when an e-mail arrived the first of this month from the office of Laura Kelly, the current governor. She declared March “Problem Gambling Awareness Month,” which is a laugh-riot if you think about it. The entire culture will be oriented toward gambling this month, more than ever, probably, with both K-State and KU seeded relatively high in the tournament.
Plus the gambling companies are running ads every 15 seconds on TV, and any college kid you talk to uses terms like “the over-under” and “parlay” as part of their lunchtime conversations.
Problem gambling? Yes, there’s going to be way more of it. People are going to get themselves upside-down. It will surely ruin lives and families.
I shouldn’t be quite so cynical. It is good that the governor and the state administration are offering help and advice, and caution. That’s better than not doing so.
But at the same time the Legislature and the governor bit the hook a year ago; the Legislature was plied by liquor and cigars and outrageous payoffs by lobbyists. I’m not even kidding.
So now we’re living through the first huge wave of sports betting. We’ll figure out the consequences, for better and worse, as the years go by.
I don’t mean to ruin your fun. Go ahead and throw your fiver into the office pool, and make your picks, and talk at the water cooler about how your bracket is ruined immediately, and so on. That’s relatively harmless. But if you find yourself overhearing the conversations by the guys plunking down bets on every single game from their phone, just realize that this is now officially condoned by the state of Kansas.
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