>> The New York Times recently did a massive investigation into how
sports betting companies have basically taken the country by storm and
let's just do a quick spoiler alert here.
It has to do with corruption.
>> Of course.
>> Okay, but there are some massive consequences to what is transpiring here.
Their rise to power has been enabled by greedy state
politicians who have either loosened regulations or
past policies that are favorable to sports betting companies.
And the reason why they've done this is because they have been bribed by
the sports betting companies and we're gonna tell you how.
So there are two main reasons why sports betting exploded out of nowhere, okay?
So sports betting was illegal in America save for a few exceptions.
And then in 2018, the Supreme Court weighed in on the matter on a federal
ban on sports betting and they deemed that it is unconstitutional.
So as soon as the Supreme Court passed down that ruling,
many states immediately legalized sports betting, others held back.
They held back to kind of see how it would play out.
But later, members of state legislatures were being bribed and
suddenly wanted to loosen these restrictions.
So I should also note that sports leagues initially were against the sports betting.
They felt that it would be toxic to sports and it would also allow for
people involved in the athletics to engage in the betting, and
they could be betting against their own team.
And so they were concerned about all that.
But as viewership declined on sporting events in recent years,
sports leagues have turned to gambling as a revenue source,
because they sell their data to the sports betting companies.
How convenient.
Now the New York Times cites a lobbyist by the name of Jeremy Kudan
who is the architect of the movement to legalize sports betting, okay?
So he's front and center on this issue.
So he didn't start with betting.
He actually worked his way up to that goal,
starting with fantasy sports which Cenk knows a lot about.
He's got magazines about fantasy football, which you should all know about.
He reads fantasy magazines, then Kudan actually set out to convince
lawmakers that fantasy sports isn't actually gambling at all, okay, but
rather a game of skill.
Cenk, is that correct?
Is a fantasy football game of skill?
> >> Actually, it is.
>> Is it? >> Yeah, so now look, number one,
I love gambling.
Number two, I love sports gambling.
Number three, I think it should be legal.
Number four, fantasy football and
other fantasy sports are to some degree, a game of skill.
So it's poker, by the way.
So it involves both luck and skill.
And so they started with an interesting argument.
So that say, hey, look, this is not a game of chance.
So it's not gambling was a unique, but actually pretty effective argument.
And if I was the courts, I probably would have agreed with them too.
Now that doesn't mean that they didn't then proceed to do a robbery,
cuz they did.
Okay, so they start with a reasonable argument.
Okay, fine, maybe it's a game of skill.
Okay, I get it, right?
Then of course, they asked for more and more and more and
the lives get bigger and bigger and so do the bribes.
Again, in America, bribery has been legalized.
They call it campaign contributions.
So for example, FanDuel and DraftKings,
two biggest fantasy sports outlets, right, that allow gambling.
Now, they wanted to legalize all sports gambling.
And so they went state by state.
So they gave $2.6 million in direct contributions to politicians.
So I'm sure that the millions of dollars didn't affect those politicians at all.
I mean, if you listen to mainstream media, they say, no, they're all angels.
>> Yeah. >> That doesn't, but
that's just the beginning.
That's the appetizer, okay, then they spent and
$114 million in lobbying in those states.
That's just a different way to funnel the money legally.
They're bribes legally to those politicians.
Cuz remember the courts have legalized it saying, yeah,
you can give politicians millions of dollars and it's not bribery.
It's a joke.
It's a total utter joke art system.
So by the way, if you're a rational person involved in sports gambling,
you'd be nuts not to bribe politicians.
It's super easy and they will definitely pass the laws.
So then they come in with the lies next, they gave them the money.
They already won, okay, but then they have to put a fig leaf on it.
So they said, it's gonna create a lot of jobs, does it?
Of course, not, right?
>> It's gonna bring in so much tax revenue which, by the way,
it did bring in some tax revenue for some of the states.
But many of these states had also done
massive tax deduction opportunities.
In other words, what we've seen happen with companies like Amazon, right,
they end up subsidizing these corporations.
In this case, they were subsidizing the sports betting companies
by allowing them to deduct any money that they saw on promotions.
>> Yeah, the promotions are to lure in people who don't normally do gambling or
people who have gambling problems.
And so the lawmakers are like, we'll throw cherry on top for you guys.
We'll let you deduct that out of your taxes, but that's not the only tax breaks
that they got, because there's a robbery going on, right?
So Kansas is a perfect example of it.
So it turns out it did lead to a lot of economic activity.
And in Kansas as soon as they legalized it,
there's $350 million worth of gambling instantly, okay?
So in that same year where they got 350 million in revenue,
how much did they pay in taxes?
$271,000.
>> My God.
>> Nothing, I mean, that's almost literally 0%, right?
It's like 0.00 something, okay?
So it's a joke.
The legislators in Kansas are criminals, okay?
In the story, they got a guy drinking his favorite expensive whiskey
that the lobbyists bought for him, smoking a cigar to the lobbyists.
>> 40-year old whiskey, yeah.
>> Yeah, yeah, and stuffing his pockets full of bribes.
>> Yep.
>> And then the people of Kansas, okay, look, I'm in favor of legalized gambling,
but why are they getting no taxes for it?
That's insane, why would you get it?
No, they instantly deregulated a new industry and
they're like, it's about freedom.
No, no, sports gambling is about freedom.
Not paying your taxes ain't got nothing to do with freedom.
That's just the robbery, okay?
So if you're wondering Jesus spent, FanDuel,
Sportske spent over $100 million, how much are they making?
Well, just a couple of years ago,
sports gambling in America was making about a billion dollars a month.
That's a lot of money.
How much is it making now that they've gone around bribing politicians of
31 different states to make it legal?
Now, they're making $8 billion a month.
And soon, they're going to be making $20 billion a month.
Now, you see why $114 million is chump change for them?
So spread the bribes around.
It's a very rational business model.
The only way to stop it is to stop the bribery to say, hey,
pass a constitutional amendment to end all bribery, wolf-pac.com.
They're the only people in the country working on it.
Otherwise, taking every industry is gonna rob us just like this.
So soon, a lot of folks will fall into an addiction and there'll be no help.
By the way, there's a lot of the money was supposed to go to gambling addiction.
None of it's going to help, almost none of it is going to help addicts.
It's all just flat out robbery.