Is sports betting a scam?

Sports betting apps advertise absolutely everywhere, and they're ruining the lives of 20-year-old men. But are they a scam? Find out in my recurring segment, Is It a Scam? Yep. Sports betting was banned in America in 1992, but it snuck back in, first by pretending that Daily Fantasy Sports isn't gambling, and then by hiring the guy who won Bush v. Gore in Citizens United to get it overturned in the Supreme Court. This isn't just a casual sports bet between friends, or even the fun, knee-breaky back alley one the mob used to run. These apps took all the skills that developers have learned over the last 20 years of making your phone extremely addictive, and plugged it directly into your bank account. Because it made the world worse. Yeah, of course. As states have legalized it, they have seen substantial increases in the bankruptcy rates, debt sent to collections, and even intimate partner violence. But the fact that it's bad, and also not good, and also extremely bad, does not make it a scam necessarily. So here are the scam parts. The apps are carefully designed to push you into dumber and dumber bets, usually something called parleys. They're also very good at identifying problem gamblers, and giving them bonuses to keep playing. And scammiest of all, if they figure out that you're good at sports betting, they ban you. That's right. You can't win long term, because if they figure out you might win long term, they'll just kick you out. The podcast Against the Rules had a professional sports gambler tell them how to bet, and they were banned on all of the apps within a couple of days. If you are currently allowed to bet on any of these apps, it's because they think you're a sucker. It's like if Words with Friends banned anybody who could spell Quixotic, or Monopoly banned anybody who noticed that Monopoly is a bad game. So they're addictive apps that are making the world worse, causing bankruptcies and violence, and will literally ban you for not being enough of a loser. But are they a scam?