Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Everybody Loses:
Please read this book before your next bet.
Quick synopsis:
A look at the legalization of sports gambling in America.
Fact for Non-History People:
Americans bet $157 legally on sports in fiscal year 2025.
Fact for History Nerds:
95% of this betting happened online.
My Take on Everybody Loses:
Who would have thought that legalizing gambling would lead to problems! Oh, a lot of people did? Well then.
Danny Funt went ahead and wrote a book about all of these problems in his revelatory Everybody Loses. As you may have guessed from the title, it does not take a positive look at gambling. However, don’t mistake this as a polemic about the evils of everyone who is a part of it. First of all, Funt himself admits to putting down a few dollars here and there. Second, this is not about shouting down gamblers. This is about raising awareness of the entire gambling system and some troubling conflicts of interest within.
There are some truly eye-opening sections of the narrative. I never considered how difficult it must be to be a college athlete who might go to class the day after a bad game to face people who lost big money on him or her. Or how reporters and talking heads may be giving you betting advice while they are literally paid by sportsbooks who make money when you lose.
I’ve read quite a few books where a journalist makes the jump to a full-length book and it feels like a bunch of articles stitched together with fluff. This is not one of those books. Funt keeps the easy prose of a journalist, but he then builds a monument to the troubles of gambling. He never loses sight of the people with the most to lose in this – the gamblers and the people around them who may be part of the fallout. This is a must-read for everyone, even non-sports fans.
(This book was provided as a review copy by Gallery Books.)
Verdict:
Everyone needs to read this. Buy it here!
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