Our theme for the month of October is “flash nonfiction.” Writers were asked to submit pieces that were 250 words or less.
Recently, when I wrote about my experience returning to baseball fandom, I mentioned a change that I noticed after years away: the explosion of sports betting.
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On a perfect September afternoon, my last beach day of the season, I lay in the sun as a few small planes flew back and forth over the water. They trailed banners behind them with brownish writing that was hard to make out. I put on my glasses and strained my eyes. “Great Odds,” “Get the Caesars App,” “Download It,” they read. The N.F.L. season was just beginning, and Caesars was on the offense.
The next Sunday, I watched the Lions game, during which there were advertisements for sports betting apps in every single commercial break.
When the Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that a 1992 anti-sports-gambling law violated the Tenth Amendment, it didn’t make much of a splash—but the first wave of its effect is now upon us. Companies committed to the “gamification” of sports have already taken betting to new heights, claiming it will create a “national lean-in experience,” whatever that means. But while trapped inside during the pandemic, many have experienced unseen depths, and calls to gambling support hotlines have increased.
I don’t think betting is inherently wrong. But I do think the objectification of professional athletes is wrong, and that addiction is bad. And the growing betting market will lead many down the road to both. In a country already awash in loneliness, this worries me.
Klaas Walhout graduated from Calvin in 2016 with majors in philosophy and religion. After five years on the East Coast, he now lives in Grand Rapids, where he spends his days (and sometimes nights) working as a hospital chaplain.
