On Tilt: The Perilous Future of Gambling in the Time of the Coronavirus
Professional sports have halted. Casinos are closed. Social distancing has shut down home games. What’s a gambler to do? Virtual marble racing, anyone?

By David Hill Mar 26, 2020, 6:00am EDT

"For many of us, March 11 was the beginning of the pandemic. It wasn’t actually the beginning, far from it. But for those of us who were healthy, whose kids were still in school, whose bosses still expected us to be at work every day, and who had paid attention to the news of the coronavirus only on the radio while driving the kids to school like the unsuspecting protagonist of a zombie movie, that Wednesday night was when we came face-to-face with what was about to happen to our lives.

As the Utah Jazz prepared to tip off against the Oklahoma City Thunder, word came across our television screens that the game would be canceled after Utah’s Rudy Gobert tested positive for the virus. By 9:30 p.m. the NBA announced a suspension of the entire season. From there other sports leagues announced they were considering following suit, including the NHL and the NCAA, which canceled the upcoming March Madness tournament. In the next two days, nearly every sporting event in the world was canceled or postponed, including Thursday night’s Lakers game, and the rest of the Lakers’ season. I logged on to my sportsbook account to check the status of my sizable future bet on the Lakers winning over 50 games this season. The status was pending. I tabbed over to view the Lakers’ current record: 49 wins.

I had nearly $1,000 in NBA future bets that were now uncertain. I had hoped to cash more than a few of them, and the end of the season would dovetail nicely with potentially putting a down payment on a house that my wife and I had been hoping to buy. We’d been saving for the moment for years, socking the money away into savings and stocks, biding our time for when we could finally afford to stop renting and join the landed gentry. I had bragged to her that my winnings would contribute, albeit in a small way, to this occasion, attempting to earn her respect, or at least increased tolerance for my gambling proclivities. I felt I was making progress on that front. But now …"


https://www.theringer.com/2020/3/26/21194430/gambling-coronavirus-nba-twitch-casinos-covid-19


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz