How Much Are You Willing To Risk? An In-depth Look at Student Sports Betting
“If I am bored in class, sometimes I will put money on any game that’s on.”
Good teams win, great times cover. The famous saying is flooding through your brain. You live by that motto. Screaming at the TV, shaking, begging, and pleading for USC to come up clutch for you and cover the spread. Then you hear the buzzer. Game over.
You’re devastated; they were so close. Just one more point was all you needed. Now, you’re staring at your six-legged parlay that you told all your friends is a lock, only to be once again sold on the very last leg. You anxiously check your phone every couple of seconds, waiting for your app to update and tell you how much you lost.
If you can’t relate, lucky for you. You have not fallen prey to the world of sports betting; however, the same cannot be said for many B-CC students. Whether it’s the World Cup, a Sunday Night Football game, or a college basketball game, there is always a sport to watch. For some, this means there’s always something to bet on.
An anonymous B-CC student stated, “If I am bored in class, sometimes I will put money on any game that’s on. At that point, I don’t really care about the team or the sport, but having money on the game just makes it more interesting to watch.” When asked how much money usually goes on the line during these games, he continued to share, “It’s usually no more than 20 dollars a game, but sometimes losses add up.”
This process of throwing away money towards games is now easier than ever through an app called Fliff, a gamified sports betting app that is free and available to download for anyone. Fliff only asks for your birthday and doesn’t even validate it before allowing you to place a bet on a variety of different sports.
Not only can students use real money, but Fliff even gives free “fliff cash” every other hour that can be used to bet with no restrictions. With an infinite supply of funds, it is easy to think you just might succeed with real money, and that’s where the real problem begins. This serves as an introduction to getting students hooked on betting large amounts of real money that doesn’t replenish in their account every hour. To make matters worse, social media plays a significant role in promoting sports betting among B-CC students.
“It’s almost impossible to avoid [sports betting content] if you follow any sports pages,” says B-CC student Dean Hammerman. “For example, Bleacher Report is one of the largest and most popular sports platforms on social media, followed by over 20 million people looking for highlights and other sports content. People following this account are looking for cool clips, highlights, and sports news, not gambling content. However, they post many big payouts from sports betting, which sparks an interest in gambling to a new audience.”
These platforms entice gullible new users to start betting, and many believe they can replicate the massive wins they see online. As it turns out, replication is nearly impossible. Nevertheless, every day more bets are placed by people who think they have an edge and that they are going to be rich, only to end up in deep, deep debt.
Alex Elias, a B-CC Senior, serves as the Feature Section director. In his free time, Alex loves to talk loudly and play ice hockey and soccer. He is...
Claire Wang, a B-CC senior, serves as the Co-Director for The Tattler's Art Team and a contributing writer. She also has two dogs and two cats.
