Category: Finance

I asked Gemini about how much Americans are losing to sports betting in 2026. I have never placed a bet this way, I used to go to Vegas in the ’80s and would limit my losses to 100 bucks a trip. It was my version of paying for entertainment.

Americans are expected to lose an estimated $12 billion to $14 billion on legal sports betting in 2026. This aggregate loss, known as Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR), reflects the difference between the total money wagered and the amount paid out in winnings. The aggregate GGR across all legal forms of gambling (including sports betting and iGaming) regularly tops $130 billion annually.

Driven by a higher average “hold” percentage for sportsbooks—which recently rose from roughly 9.3% to over 11%—and monthly handles regularly exceeding $13 billion to $15 billion, Americans are actively losing billions each month to sportsbooks.

The financial impact extends beyond direct betting losses, bringing broader consequences for household wealth:

• Investment Reduction: Studies show that for every dollar deposited into a sports betting app, users reduce their traditional investment and brokerage deposits by about 20 cents.
• Credit Impacts: Research indicates that the legalization of online sports betting increases household bankruptcy filings by up to 28% and raises loan/credit card delinquencies as consumers chase losses.
• New Tax Burdens: Tax law changes are impacting bettors nationwide, as federal caps on gambling deductions force many to pay taxes on “phantom income” generated by winnings, even if their year-end totals result in a net loss.

Hahaha, not me…The Ramsey Show is awesome. I don’t always agree with them, but…

One of the MANY reasons that I deleted my FB account.

From 80,000 Hours.-

Meta’s own internal documents show the company was aware it was profiting from $16 billion a year in scam ads — and that its leadership chose not to act. If this is how a social media company behaves when the stakes are ad revenue, how much should we trust AI companies when the stakes are far higher?

Leaked documents from Meta reveal that 10% of the company’s total revenue — around $16 billion a year — came from ads for scams and goods Meta had itself banned. These likely enabled the theft of $50 billion dollars a year from Americans alone. But when an internal anti-fraud team developed a screening method that halved scam prevalence from China, the documents suggest it was shelved after Zuckerberg was briefed. The team was disbanded, the freeze on fraudulent Chinese ad agencies was lifted, and within months fraud had bounced back to near its previous level. Meta also developed a global playbook for “managing” regulators — including altering its own ad library so that scam ads were removed from results whenever regulators came looking.

Host Rob Wiblin breaks down what the documents show and what they reveal about the limits of voluntary corporate self-regulation — then turns to the bigger question: How much do you trust companies like this — ones willing to put a dollar value on acceptable harm — to handle AI systems capable of making decisions about your healthcare, your finances, and your government?

From George Kamel…Chances are, you’ve seen a too-good-to-be-true ad that promises an easy way out of debt—fast. But here’s the truth: Most debt relief schemes don’t actually make your situation better. So before you sign up for anything, let’s walk through exactly how these companies work, what they don’t tell you up front, and what your better options actually are.