Last week, it was announced that Polymarket—a site where you can bet on basically anything, from the likelihood of a government shutdown to the winner of New York City’s mayoral race—will be allowed to operate in the U.S. The decision was the culmination of a broader trend: since 2018, some thirty-nine states have legalized sports betting, and the rise of on ... Show More
Yesterday
“The Social Reckoning” Shows How It All Went Wrong
In 2010, Time magazine’s Person of the Year was not a world leader or entertainment icon but Mark Zuckerberg, the twenty-six-year-old creator of Facebook. That same year, Zuckerberg got the Hollywood treatment in the bio-pic “The Social Network,” directed by David Fincher and wri ... Show More
50 m
Sep 24
What Survival Stories Tell Us (and Should We Listen?)
On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz discuss the perennial appeal of survival stories. They trace the theme of man versus nature from early novels like Daniel Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe” to new releases like “Heart of the Beast,” ... Show More
50m 11s
Dec 2024
All Or Nothing: The Rise of Sports Betting | 134
In this episode we examine America’s favorite pastime: gambling. With loosening regulations, the explosion of online betting sites, and the full support of major sports leagues, sportsbetting has become ripe for scam. In this episode we meet an accountant who worked the system an ... Show More
52m 56s
Jan 2025
Deep Dive: The Duopoly Driving America’s Sports Betting Obsession
<p>In this deep dive, we explore the booming business of online sports betting, a multi-billion-dollar industry reshaped by a landmark 2018 Supreme Court ruling. From the dominance of FanDuel and DraftKings to the untapped potential in states like Texas and California, we uncover ... Show More
8m 53s
Mar 2023
The Explosion of Legalized Sports Gambling | Beyond the Scenes
March Madness and the NCAA tournament are in full effect, and it’s one of the biggest sports betting times of the year. Host Roy Wood Jr. sits down with Daily Show correspondent, Michael Kosta, and gambling industry reporter for ESPN, David Purdum, for a conversation about how p ... Show More
44m 52s
Jul 2023
Will easier access to gambling mean more gambling addiction? with Shane Kraus, PhD, and Lia Nower, JD, PhD
It used to be that if you wanted to gamble, you had to go to a casino or a racetrack to do it. But the expansion of online gambling and newly loosened laws around sports betting mean that people can now place bets from just about anywhere. Shane Kraus, PhD, of the University of N ... Show More
37m 21s
Feb 2023
How Sports Betting Hit the Mainstream in America
<p>This weekend, one of the most watched sporting events of the year, the Super Bowl, will draw an estimated $16 billion in bets from Americans, more than double last year’s total.</p><p>The booming trade is a sign of how gambling has gone from illegal to legal very quickly in ma ... Show More
34m 25s
Sep 2023
The dark side of the US sports-betting boom
Sports betting is a relatively young industry in the US, in effect launching after a 2018 US Supreme Court ruling struck down a federal ban. Before then, those who wanted to gamble on sports legally had to travel to casinos in Nevada, or three other states that were exempt from t ... Show More
22m 4s