The Cipher, with sports gambling and stolen seats

Defector Media <yourpals-donotreply@defector.com>

September 24, 8:00 pm

Hi there! Welcome back to The Cipher. We had everything on Defector today: racing F-bombs, horny texts to RFK Jr., wild card chaos, a great explanation of why Tom Brady sucks at broadcasting, and a ringing toilet. There's even more below! -Lauren What I Like About The Tigers Maitreyi gives us some earnest words about a very good team that she cares about a lot. What’s Driving The Rise Of The Far Right Among Young Germans? Luisa Rollenhagen reports on a scary trend. Lamine Yamal Is Already On Top Billy wrote about a Spanish 17-year-old making a case for himself as the best in the world. Two Things We Liked On The Internet Today:  Aaron Edwards in Slate writes about making friends In Dirt, a round-up of great songs to listen to while taking off in an airplane A Simple Solution To The Sports Gambling Crisis Sports gambling's got people all fucked up. Its widespread legalization, coupled with the innovation of betting apps that live on your phone, has brought us to a place where every other day seems to produce a concerning headline about how more 22-year-olds than ever are getting addicted to gambling and losing money they don't have on stupid parlay bets. I can fix this. Is it time to once again make sports betting illegal? Nah. Should we have tighter regulations on how and to whom sportsbooks advertise? Probably. But even if FanDuel and DraftKings started getting the same treatment that tobacco companies get, that wouldn't solve the real problem, which is one of technology. So long as phones allow people to walk around all day with a fully operational sportsbook in their pocket, this mess is just going to get bigger. So here's what we do: Congress passes a law making it so the only way to legally bet on sports is to do it via phone call. The likes of DraftKings and FanDuel would then be forced to hire thousands of people to answer the phones at remote sportsbooks (job creation!), and then any time anyone wanted to place a bet, they would have to write out their picks on a grimy little post-it note, call a sports book's 1-800 number, and then read their bets over the phone. Today's teens are terrified of making phone calls; ergo, none of them would bet. This plan is perfect, and there are no further issues to discuss. -Tom Ley From The McKenna Vaults The final home games in Oakland A's history reminded me of this photo of Dave McKenna at RFK stadium, which we put in this newsletter a couple years ago. Here's what he had to say about it then. "It's taken after the WFT/Dallas game on December 22, 1996, the last home game ever at the stadium. People came to RFK that day ready to dismantle. I saw guys carrying tool kits going in and guys carrying whole rows of seats going out. I didn't really steal that seat. The photo was taken by Michael Spilotro, a photographer in D.C. who I used to deliver pool chemicals with. He was also a roommate of mine in a group house where everybody else was a cop. He's got stories." Copyright © 2024 Defector Media LLC, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via Defector Media. Our mailing address is: Defector Media 147 Prince Street, PR3/19 Brooklyn, NY 11201  Unsubscribe - Unsubscribe Preferences