Arkansans Wager $2.5M Every Day on Sports Betting

Gambling,

Arkansans have wagered an average of roughly $2.5 million every single day on sports betting this year.

Data from the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration shows that from January 1 through July 31, sports bets totaled $529,050,612.76. Nearly all of those bets were placed online.

All told, Arkansans have wagered an average of more than $75.5 million every month, or roughly $2.5 million per day.

That figure is likely to increase once football season gets underway.

We have written repeatedly about the explosion in gambling over the past few years. Studies show more than half of men ages 18-49 now have an active sportsbook account online, and the Arkansas Racing Commission approved FanDuel and DraftKings to conduct sports betting in February. But a growing body of evidence shows sports betting is harmful — and that internet sports betting is especially destructive.

People who gamble on sports are at an increased risk of suffering from gambling problems. When sports betting happens online or on a smartphone, the risk is even higher.

A study published this summer found gambling disorder diagnoses have risen in states that legalized sports betting. Researchers said the largest increase in gambling disorders was found among young adults.

Unfortunately, gambling problems go hand-in-hand with financial problems.

A report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York also found that states with legal mobile sports betting have seen credit delinquency rates spike.

A recent report from the Ethics and Public Policy Center confirmed that legal sports betting is linked to increases in personal bankruptcies and credit card delinquencies.

Bankruptcy attorneys across the country say online sports betting is driving a surge in personal financial problems — especially among young men in their 20s and 30s.

In fact, researchers at UCLA estimate that online sportsbooks are linked to roughly 30,000 more bankruptcies per year nationwide.

Arkansans need to understand that sports betting isn’t harmless entertainment — it’s predatory, and it’s growing.

To put it another way: Can Arkansas really afford to wager $2.5 million every single day on sports?

As powerful corporations try to make gambling part of everyday life, it’s important for Arkansas to protect its citizens and families from predatory gambling. Otherwise, gambling addiction will simply continue wrecking lives and hurting families in our state.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

READ MORE

What Will Arkansas Get from the Settlement with Meta?

Social Media, , ,

Last week, social media giant Meta agreed to a $17.1 billion settlement with dozens of state attorneys general over a slate of consumer protection lawsuits. As part of the agreement, Meta must add a host of safety features to protect teens on Facebook and Instagram.

The proposed Settlement Agreement is still waiting for final court approval. If approved, Attorney General Tim Griffin says Arkansas would receive more than $172.4 million.

But when will Arkansas receive its share of the settlement and where will the money go? Here is what the proposed Settlement Agreement says:

Meta would pay the settlement money directly to the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office. The agreement’s payment language says “For the State of Arkansas, payments . . . shall be made directly to the Office of the Arkansas Attorney General.”

The settlement says the State of Arkansas may use the settlement money “for any lawful purpose.”

Settlement money in consumer protection cases often funds initiatives to address the harm that prompted the lawsuit in the first place.

For example, Arkansas uses tobacco settlement money to fund the State’s Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Program and other public health initiatives.

Arkansas uses money from an opioid settlement to address the opioid crisis.

Attorney General Griffin’s office has said the settlement funds from the lawsuit against Meta “will be spent consistent with the agreement, including on mental health and keeping our kids safe.”

Settlement payments to Arkansas would be made annually over the next ten years and could be nearly a quarter of a billion dollars.

At a minimum, Arkansas would receive $17,245,993.63 from Meta within 30 days after the settlement takes effect.

Assuming the settlement takes effect this year, Arkansas would then receive another $17,245,993.63 every January 15 until 2035.

That means over the next 10 years, Arkansas would receive a minimum $172,459,936, but Meta could be forced to pay more if certain “contingencies” in the settlement are met.

For example, if Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube become subject to teen age-verification and usage requirements that are substantially similar to Meta’s — and if certain other conditions are met — Meta would pay Arkansas another $7.4 million per year.

Several lawsuits are currently in play against TikTok and other social media platforms that could force them to adopt youth-safety and usage restrictions that are similar to Meta’s.

Between minimum payments and the other contingencies in the Settlement Agreement, Arkansas could receive close to $250 million from Meta over the next decade.

Tech platforms like Meta are multibillion-dollar corporations. The men and women who profit from these businesses have a responsibility to protect their users — especially teenagers.

Children deserve proactive protection online. If tech companies won’t give children that protection, then it’s up to voters and elected officials to make sure they get it.

Family Council appreciates Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin for going to court to protect kids online.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

READ MORE

Socialism: Same Old Pitch, New Packaging

Current Events,

The Cato Institute recently published a column explaining the flaws with socialists’ soundbites and political positions.

Rasmussen reports that support for capitalism has declined since 2023, and a growing share of likely voters now say socialism is better. Last November, Zohran Mamdani won New York City’s mayoral election. Mamdani, 34, belongs to the socialist Working Families Party. In his victory speech, Mamdani promised New Yorkers a “new age,” saying, “We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve, and no concern too small for it to care about.”

But this modern socialism is really just a repackaging of the same arguments and soundbites that communism used in the last century.

Earlier this month, the Cato Institute published a column titled “Ten Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) Arguments for Socialism and Why They’re Wrong.”

The column points out well-documented problems with socialism — like rationing in the Soviet Union and collectivized agriculture in Communist China, which oppressed millions of people and kept them in abject poverty.

The Cato Institute argues that government intervention in housing and real estate tends to actually raise housing prices instead of making homes more affordable.

The article also notes that socialism is inherently totalitarian, writing, “Socialism, as law professor Ilya Somin observes of its century-long record, has always required coercion to make people surrender their property to the state.”

Socialism and communism have a well-known track record of tyranny.

 As Ben Shapiro put it a few years ago, “Socialism is bad, because socialism is tyranny. Not it’s an aspect of tyranny. Socialism itself is tyranny. … The notion of socialism is that you don’t own your own freedom.”

Or as the Colson Center’s John Stonestreet said last year, “The reason oppression results every time socialism is tried is because it’s built into the system. Oppression is not a bug of socialism. It’s a feature.”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said in 1953, “Communism is irreconcilable with Christianity,” because it is atheistic and materialistic and because “the methods of communism are diametrically opposed to Christianity.”

Socialism and communism have simply never worked. Capitalist systems have flaws and weaknesses, but they have still managed to produce good results. Socialism has not.

Maybe that’s why the Democratic Socialists of America has an online store powered by Shopify that accepts all major credit cards and sells DSA merchandise like $30 T-shirts and $45 hoodies.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

READ MORE