Red Sox Pitcher Confronts Commissioner About Gambling, Social Media Threats

[usonian]

https://www.newsweek.com/sports/mlb/red-sox-pitcher-confronts-commissioner-about-gambling-social-media-threats-2102617

Three months after a teammate and his wife went public with death threats they received on social media, Red Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito was compelled to confront commissioner Rob Manfred about the issue.

Giolito told Rob Bradford on the Baseball Isn't Boring podcast that the threats against Boston pitcher Liam Hendriks in May were hardly an isolated incident.

Giolito said the online threats are getting worse "by the year, by the week, by the day."

"I'm getting messages after every game," he said. "Even games where I pitched well, where they're mad at me because I hit the strikeout over instead of being under; prop bets, all these crazy things. People put hundreds of dollars on it. They don't have a lot of money but they're gambling it anyway because it's a disease. They freak out."

It's not just baseball.

Gambling and sports.
Nothing could possibly go wrong.

[FalloutShelter]

1. KO predicted this several years ago

When sports leagues started partnering with betting platforms for advertising revenue.

What could go wrong?

[wolfie001]

2. I'll stick to my Grand Strategy computer games and my coffee and tea

Never understood how the betting/gambling thing was so enticing. I'd never travel to Texas or Florida (unless Disneyworld) and Las Vegas is #3 on that list.

[usonian]

3. California has Disney (and a lot more)

True story. Physicists had a convention in Las Vegas. Being smart, they realized that the house takes 10% off the top and gambling was a losing game. They gambled zilch, and were uninvited for any future conventions.

Oops, make that banned.

https://qz.com/work/1249513/was-a-convention-of-physicists-really-banned-from-las-vegas

“All the physicists were much more interested in discussing their work than in anything else the hotel had to offer, and I remember the disconsolate faces of the girls hanging around at night, expecting to take drink orders, while small groups of physicists at the tables were deep in conversation, with pencils and paper,” says Judith Ashcroft, whose husband, Neil Ashcroft, in 1986 was the chair of the society’s Division of Condensed Matter Physics.

The casino’s take that weekend was so low that the group was allegedly asked never to return to the MGM Grand, or to the city of Las Vegas—or so says the legend the APS has repeated for the last 32 years. The most effective way to take the house, it seems, is to simply refuse to play its games.

[wolfie001]

5. Yes! I went to both!

The tune, "It's a Small World" played in my mind for weeks after that visit. Thanks for the link to that article.

[usonian]

6. Yes, indeed.

I'm in the Sierra foothills. Very beautiful. After some 30 years in the SF bay area, I might return there. At my age, the 7 steep acres of this "Ponderosa Ranch" are a bit much to care for.

All the "spectacle" seems to be in the LA area. The rest of the state is more "explore at your own pace"

[wolfie001]

7. I loved San Simeon Castle!

I've been through Napa wine country and the SW wine country. Cali is a miracle state! You're so lucky to be there. I'm in Blue Maryland, so that's pretty good. But the humidity.

[Mopar151]

4. The. threatening epidemic embodies "whats wrong with America"!

Weathermen, medical /public health, firemen, sports figures,teachers....