00:00One of the dumbest things I've come across, no joke, in a long, long time,
00:03the NCAA is having a vote in the next few days or weeks
00:06to allow Division I and possibly Division II and III athletes,
00:12they're having a vote to allow those kids to gamble on professional sports.
00:20And I read this and said, look, I'm a compulsive gambler.
00:22I speak all over the country about responsible gambling.
00:26I tutor a number of young adults who have gambling problems.
00:29So this is a major part of my life.
00:31And like I said, I lost everything as a result of gambling, including my freedom.
00:36So I'm sensitive to this topic.
00:37But I'm trying to figure out why the NCAA feels so strongly
00:41about something that the kids don't feel that strongly about,
00:46and that is allowing NCAA Division I, II, III athletes,
00:49so kids on scholarship, to legally wager once they're 21,
00:54which is the age in most states.
00:55Some states it's 18, but it's typically 21,
00:57to legally wager on professional sports.
01:00Like, why?
01:01Like, what's the need for that?
01:02Who's clamoring to allow college athletes
01:06to wager on professional athletes?
01:08And it's totally tone deaf to a real epidemic
01:11that's growing now in this country,
01:13which is young people, specifically young men,
01:17specifically young competitive men
01:19who don't like to lose,
01:21they're more likely to become compulsive gamblers
01:24because losing doesn't compute in their heads.
01:26So when they do lose a wager, what do they do?
01:29They wager again to try to make it for the loss
01:31because they don't understand losing.
01:33They're competitive.
01:34But what group of NCAA athletes are like,
01:37yo, it isn't fair.
01:38How come we can't gamble on the NFL or the NBA?
01:42No one says that.
01:44What I was told is that the NCAA is very concerned,
01:48as they should be, about point shaving,
01:50about kids negatively or positively impacting
01:53the outcome of a game or stats
01:55so that they can win a wager
01:56or someone they know can win a wager.
01:58It is a real concern or problem.
02:00But to make a statement and a stance
02:03that we are going out of our way to lead,
02:06well, to approve, because it's certainly legal,
02:08to approve our NCAA scholarship athletes
02:12to wager on professional sports
02:15seems completely tone deaf
02:17and not something that's a real problem right now.
02:19in our societies.
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