I 'bet' you gamble more than I do

I hear that a lot from people who regularly buy PowerBall tickets, spend hours at the blackjack table and make frequent trips to the casino.

My grandfather bet on horses at the racetrack in Fessenden when I was little. There hasn’t been horse racing, except for maybe an Indian Horse Relay, at the Wells County Fairgrounds in decades.

My husband and I went to the casino for our anniversary several years ago. We each put $20 in the slot machines. We were both broke in a few minutes, so we headed over to the seafood buffet to drown our sorrow.

I’ve been to Vegas twice, and I didn’t spend a dime on gambling either time. I looked at the machines in the airport and nearly everywhere I turned while on the strip. I walked through gaming floors to get to my hotel room without even an itch to part with my hard-earned cash.

We were up at the Spirit Lake Casino for the newspaper convention in May, and I watched as one of my colleagues played slots with $20 a co-worker gave her. She managed to come out ahead after playing for 15 minutes on two different machines, and we walked away satisfied that she had made the guy some money.

My husband and I play pull tabs at the local bar once in a while. I don’t mean the electronic ones with the big fancy screens either. We usually opt for the old-fashioned paper style ones that leave a mess on the high top. There’s something about using your hands to crack them open and reveal a few bucks. We redeem the winners (usually $3 or $5 tabs) for more until we’ve spent our budget.

Yes, gambling can be fun, when you’re winning or supporting a good community cause. I apparently just haven’t figured out how to actually win (much).

The local Dollars for Scholars chapter in New Rockford does a Super Bowl board each year, and I have no problem dropping $20 in to put my name on a square. My daughter “won” when she received scholarships from the organization as a senior. That’s money for college we don’t have to pay back!

My preferred gambling mode is to buy raffle tickets. It’s a win-win for our local communities. There are plenty of opportunities to put up a 20-spot (or $100) on raffles for various causes. Who can say no to a kid raising money for the local 4-H club or baseball team?

I do love scratch cards though. I would like to organize some sort of fundraiser using scratch cards one day, because they aren’t really used in North Dakota.

Right now I have to travel out of state to buy them because the N.D. Lottery doesn’t have scratch cards. We usually get them at convenience stores when we’re visiting family in Iowa. Our kids enjoy scratching them off. We’ve even bought scratch offs for white elephant Christmas gifts.

One form of gambling I haven’t done is sports betting, and it’s surging.

Eric Ramsey, a writer for the Legal Sports Report, http://www.legalsportsreport.com, is a data and policy analyst covering regulated US gambling, including sports betting and Daily Fantasy Sports. He comes from a poker background, formerly on staff at PokerNews and the World Poker Tour.

According to a recent report by Ramsey, the US sports betting industry surpassed $250 billion in lifetime handle since the repeal of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) in 2018.

The PASPA, Ramsey writes, was a blanket ban on sports wagering that passed in 1992. The ban applied to all states in America except for four that already had sports betting in place: Nevada, Oregon, Montana and Delaware.

Since the Supreme Court struck down PASPA in 2018, legalized operations have spread to 33 states – 24 of which allow online sports betting – as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

“Nearly 60 percent of American adults now have access to legal sports betting in their home state,” according to Ramsey.

Sports betting surges in the fall and winter. That makes sense, because the NFL football season opened last week. However, basketball remains the most-bet sport in the country by volume, according to the report, and football comes in second. Each sport accounts for around a third of all reported betting in the country, give or take a few percent. Baseball, meanwhile, only brings in around 15 percent of the total volume, even with its long season.

Here in North Dakota, the state has an exclusive agreement with the Native American tribes for the operation of sports betting. The financials aren’t required to be disclosed publicly either, so it is unknown how much revenue is generated from sports betting in the state.

I’m a football fan, and I know sports betting isn’t for me. I’d much rather make a bet that involves the loser buying treats or beverages. That I can handle. I mean, I have some drink cards in my purse from local bars, just waiting to be handed out the next time I lose (because it WILL happen).

Here at the office, we’ve made harmless bets, like on the number of errors we’d find in the newspaper AFTER it went to press. Yes, I lost … all I had to do was dish out two bottles of Mellow Yellow to a staff member. Only bet what you can afford to lose, folks.

This also happens to be the disclaimer on almost every form of gambling. I can appreciate the message from the North Dakota Lottery. “The North Dakota Lottery encourages players to be responsible in their amount of play. Do not spend more than you can afford on any lottery product. Remember, it’s just a game. If gambling is no longer fun call 2-1-1, contact GamblerND in North Dakota or Gamblers Anonymous.”