Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for April 18, 2024

MLB banned Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle in 1980 for taking jobs as greeters and autographing baseballs at casinos in Atlantic City. Now, they have cut promotion deals with online betting.

It’s only a problem for those who actually bet; the rest of us get to point and laugh.

My main concern is with athletes and referees taking bribes.

An NBA guy just got banned for doing that.

Money aside, gambling is a waste of time (the most sinful of all wastes!).

I’ve never seen the fun in gambling.

The NBA guy that got banned for life definitely deserved it, unlike Pete Rose. I think Professional Sports really needs to rethink having gambling companies as their sponsors.

Yet another disturbing sign of the times.

I care about neither sports nor gambling, so it is no temptation for me. But the ads are as annoying as the Aspca and Shriners ads, but much shorter.

But Rat I thought the house always wins?

The big, glitziest building are the casinos here. Schools, not so much.

Well as long as there idiots there be such theengs.

If people want to be stupid and reckless with their money, let them.

My gambling is limited to the occasional lottery ticket and my mutual funds. I own a little stock that was given as a gift, but that doesn’t count.

My country fully legalized betting so much that in every corner there is a gambling bar & every other commercial promotes gambling :(

Not many Math majors in there. It’s the fastest way to lose everything you own.

Pete Rose to the Baseball Hall of Fame — NOW!!

Is Rat’s house Pig’s house too?

Only a Looser would use their Famines assets for betting!

The games will be “fixed” now and then, count on it. (Thought I was going to say bet, didn’t ya.)The reason isn’t because the sport will be affected, it is because the betting organizations will lose money.

To hear their advertisements, no one really ever loses.

That’ll teach you to mock Goat and bet what you can’t afford to lose, Rat.

As long as they don’t get carried away, when they first opened the casino here, co-workers were complaining their parents spent their whole retirement check there !

It’s all fun and games until you become addicted.

Legal sports betting may be new (except horses) but the Government has now been in the gambling business for years. Encouraging addiction and encouraging people who have no money to throw away their money. That bothers me more.

There were reasons for some of the old laws.

I’m willing to bet he won’t make no bets no more.

I wonder sometimes if this is a test for changing laws about drugs. Make it all legal and see if the abuse goes down.

I don’t gamble. I once went into a cassino on a reservation many, many years ago and saw all these glassy eyed people pouring their hard-earned money into the “one armed bandits” and they never got anything in return, not even a gumball. I guess everyone thinks the next bet will be the big one, but sadly, it rarely ever is. I said no, this doesn’t make any sense.

“Gambling problem? Call 1-800-YOU-LOSE”

I knew a guy who had a big win, got addicted, and lost every time after that

As long as we can be sure it’s only adults betting, I don’t care.

Who needs a house when you have the thrill of losing it all!

Most states ban betting on credit to stop people from betting over their head.

It’s all about the money. Never been a Pete Rose fan, but time for him to go into the Hall.

It’s so easy to lose your shirt.

If you can bet on it, it can be fixed

Money is all that matters. How ironic after one of the ads on TV talking about how much fun gambling is, they run a public service ad about how you can get help if you have a gambling problem.

“It could happen!”—-Judy Tenuta

Most of the commentators here are like members in AA, if you drink you are an alcoholic. Just because you don’t enjoy gambling or have a problem with it, to bad the vast majority of us don’t

Rat, your loss of the Tropicana will turn into a place to have a ball.

at least he didn’t bet the farm…oops…nevermind…

Really sad thing here is, I believe Rat rents.

Anything to reduce my burgeoning property tax inflation.

Can we talk about simulated gambling in video games? Not only does it usually favor you statistically, which gives the uncomfortable message to young people playing the game that IRL gambling is a stable source of income, but also, more importantly, they are just genuinely almost always the least enjoyable and most repetitive part of the game, ESPECIALLY when there is NO element of skill.

It’s like we’re living a 1970s movie about the future. Huge billboards on freeways for pot and gambling (and, of course, lawyers).

All the ads for online betting are heinous. It is truly cringe worthy when you consider how many young minds are watching this. Gambling is an addiction! I worked with a surgeon who excused himself from the surgery we were doing and had the circulating nurse to call his son at home, then told her to tell the boy to go online and place a sports bet. That was the last case I ever did with him. TV gambling adds should be banned like cigarettes.

I’ve always been amused how Washington State uses all the vices when they need to drum up money. Alcohol taxes, cigarette taxes, lottery tickets. They don’t tax gambling winnings yet.

Baseball used to be my favorite sport. Allowing gambling plus the changes in the rules have cancelled that out!

Moderation in everything is fine by me, but it is astonishing how fast you lose all sense when something trips into addiction.

Most of those online betting sites also have deals with journalists so it has become difficult to know if what you read (or watch) is an attempt to influence a game or trade.

Goat is right, this will not end well.

I’m with Goat.

i enjoy the little reminders about gamblers annonymous on these sites & ads!

Sinking to the level where you bet your house for the “fun” isn’t fun.