Episode #9: Vice Monopolists FanDuel and DraftKings with Les Bernal and Dr. Kavita Fischer
How and why did America embrace gambling? And what were the regulatory changes that put a slot machine in three hundred million pockets?
Welcome to the podcast Organized Money. You can listen to today’s episode with Les Bernal and Dr. Kavita Fischer on Apple, on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Commercialized gambling has taken over America. Today, there is a slot machine in every pocket through our phones, and citizens hear more about their government through advertisements about state lotteries than nearly any other service. In 1989, the blockbuster Back to the Future Part II showed a future dominated by gambling as a dystopia.
Today, it is just good economic development, as gambling has gone mainstream, reaching middle class families, children, and penetrating everywhere in sports. But this new form of gambling is charged with the power of big data, and gambling apps track everything from what you bet to when you sleep. (Yes, seriously!)
How did we get here? And what are the politics around America’s “most neglected social problem”? On this episode, predatory gambling expert Les Bernal and psychiatrist and recovering gambling addict Dr. Kavita Fischer take us through the different parts of the industry.
Listen via Apple:
Or Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Thanks for listening, and let us know how we’re doing in the comments or by responding directly to this email.
-Matt and Dave
(photo via Ian Kennedy)
Urbanists are trying to figure out how to draw people back out into public space. I never imagined that casinos would also have this problem.
(I hate gambling, and yet have worked on some casino designs. The companies would come in with floor plan layouts that we would pop in, configured on the best predatory practices they had studied in depth.)
I’m loving this new podcast!