Former
Dallas Mavericks executive Haralabos Voulgaris has warned
the NBA about the impact of embracing betting.
A recent report from sports and business reporter Joe
Pompliano stated that the NBA has decided to include the feature of live betting
during the matches.
The 48-year-old made a lot of money from betting but in a
series of posts on the social media platform X — previously known as Twitter,
he explained how NBA management might regret their decision.
“This is brilliant, I'm sure everyone will love this until
all their young fans who's frontal lobes aren't quite fully forrmed go broke
and can't stand the thought of watching an NBA game,” he wrote.
“Honestly the NBA will look back in sheer horror that they
shoved this much gambling down their customers throats. Some people want to
watch the game with their young children and don't want to have them exposed to
gambling at a young age. It worked out for me, it won't work out 99% of ppl I
can promise you.”
Voulgaris, who started betting 25 years ago and managed to
develop predictive models, further went on to argue that things have changed massively
in the last two decades.
“I made my gambling $ in a different epoch. Where it was in
the shadows, hidden in the dark,” he wrote while responding to a user on X. “Do
you know how hard it was to be a gambler
back then problem or otherwise? How much work you had to do to find a bookie,
place a bet , make sure you got paid. It
wasn't advertised it was murky and disguised.”
He further went on to write: “Guys who wanted to gamble and
lose $ back then had a determination to do so, it wasn't shoved in their faces
while they were watching games. They weren't walking around carrying a casino
in their pocket. They weren't listening
to their favorite podcasters shilling same game parlays.
“I am telling people to stop gambling now because its having
a massive societal impact and its being promoted by the leagues. If that makes
me a hypocrite so be it, I'll be fine if gambling is banned or limited I can
promise you.”