At SportsBetting.Legal, we’ve been reporting with some regularity now about the use of cryptocurrency for online sports gambling.
We’ve discussed the benefits of crypto, as well as some of the drawbacks.
We’ve also waxed philosophical about why certain sportsbooks support the coins they do, and what it’ll take for these operators to expand their crypto sports betting stables.
Of course, there’s plenty of alignment between crypto investing and gambling in general, just as there is between these two pastimes and playing the stock market.
All speculative investment is a form of gambling.
Unfortunately, that means that anti-gambling advocates are always going to rear their ugly heads and try to convince you to give up your self-destructive, sinful ways whenever you try to get an edge.
While we acknowledge that a small percentage of online bettors suffer from actual gambling addiction, we do not advocate using the online gambling industry as a cudgel to promote some sort of “mental health” narrative.
We believe that every adult who is empowered to earn and manage their own money is similarly empowered and capable of maintaining their funds responsibly.
If you struggle with that, we absolutely recommend seeking help, whether from gambling addiction services or standard financial advisers.
Listen to The Dave Ramsay Show on talk radio. Whatever it takes. You can do it.
But you shouldn’t be forced into acting against your own wishes by fearmongers that are interested only in shoving their moral values and financial interests down your throat.
This sort of weaponized nonsense is a common practice in the mainstream, and just as it’s long smeared the gambling pastime, it’s now back with a vengeance, painting the entire cryptocurrency market with the same brush.
Case in point, this absolute trash from Forbes.
Now, we’ll leave the debate about the conflicts of interest inherent in traditional investment magazines warning potential customers about putting their money in alternative markets for another day.
Besides, it’s plenty self-evident without further discussion.
But seriously, take a look at this sob story drivel, starting with the headline:
Crypto traders anonymous: A new addiction takes hold for many as cryptocurrency goes mainstream
Got that? A new addiction has been unleashed upon an unwitting public! Beware! Be very aware!
Break out the Kleenex, because the frameup continues:
Maté Ballai, a ride-share driver in Budapest, estimates he’s funneled $100,000 into trading foreign currencies and cryptocurrencies since 2018: $50,000 from a family inheritance, $10,000 from the sale of his car, and the rest from his paychecks.
Initially he didn’t see any returns. But everything changed starting in November 2020. His investments in cryptocurrency XRP—plus Ethereum and Bitcoin—doubled, then quadrupled. “I felt like a god,” Ballai says. He borrowed money on margin to increase and diversify his investments, and went on a spending spree.
He bought himself a BMW and a $2,000 OLED TV. He signed a lease on an apartment and moved out of his family home. He splurged $20,000 on a two-week vacation in Dubai, paying for his friends’ lodging, liquor, and car racing in the desert. “I was making $2,500 a day … it was ‘f–k you’ money,” says Ballai, 24. “Another three months at this pace, I’d be a millionaire.”
Maté Ballai is an idiot.
Naturally, Ballai wasn’t as primed for baller status as he believed.
That’s because crypto is famously volatile, and dingus here didn’t bother to factor in the market’s historical trends.
Once crypto prices fell, Ballai doubled down, and he “funneled more and more money in, convinced the market would rebound.”
Then, we get the typical load of BS about how this guy didn’t sleep, got dumped, “found blood in his stool” (because this is a well-established medical side effect of being financially incompetent), and so on.
And remember: Ballai did all this with money that wasn’t his. He took out high-interest loans to buy more crypto!
Maté Ballai is an idiot.
And the news media – which is heavily invested in the traditional banking model – is only too happy to use this buffoon as if his story is any kind of commonplace.
It is not.
Of course, the article is full of “psychiatrists say” and other officialese, but it’s all smoke and mirrors.
The cat – if it wasn’t already out of the bag – is loosed by this further tripe:
An estimated 46 million Americans now own cryptocurrency… It’s unclear how many of them are among the 2 million people who have a severe gambling disorder, plus another 5 million with a mild to moderate problem, according to the National Council on Problem Gambling.
Correlation, causation, both, neither.
Who cares, right?
And then, toward the bottom of the piece, you get the customary disclaimer where the outlet admits its entire premise is broken:
Data from overseas provides a more detailed picture, though it’s still inconclusive.
In other words, the whole thing is a big fat nothingburger. It’s fake news.
But ever the victim, Ballai has the nerve to blame the same outlets he’s crying to.
Specifically, he “blames his binge…on social media crypto-influencers who sell courses peddling unrealistic promises about the amount of money investors can make. The don’t mention that most people fail.”
He took classes? Seriously?
Maté Ballai is an idiot.
And the biggest joke of all: Had Ballai simply cut his losses and held the crypto he already owned instead of trying to impatiently bet himself out of a hole, he’d be a multi-millionaire in relatively short order.
A year or two from now, when his assets would have been worth millions as all the biggest coins hit their all-time highs in another bull rush, this guy’s going to have serious problems reconciling his actions.
Look, cryptocurrency is the future, and many establishment pundits are terrified of it. More new wealth is being generated by this market than any other industry in history, and it’s moving quickly.
If you want to invest in crypto or bet with Bitcoin, Litecoin, etc., don’t let morons with zero self-control and the world’s worst decision-making abilities scare you off your opportunity.
Life’s a gamble enough when you aren’t plagued with terminal stupidity.
Be smart, never spend more than you can afford to lose, and don’t count your eggs before they hatch.
And maybe hold off on the Dubai vacations until your investments have already paid off.
