Is it gambling? Well, it depends on where you live
QMy husband lost a lot of money betting on football games last year. So for New Year’s, he promised to give up gambling. Now, though, he’s betting on fantasy basketball. When I confronted him, he said fantasy basketball isn’t gambling, it’s a game of skill. My husband may be a gambler, but he’s also an honest man. So I’m wondering, could he possibly be right?
AIt depends on where you live. And no, we’re not kidding. In this country, what constitutes gambling is decided on a state-by-state basis. Currently, some states consider fantasy sports betting to be a game of chance (i.e., gambling), while others consider it a game of skill. As with poker, how individual states regulate the betting depends primarily on which of these two categories they consider it to be in.
Not that it matters. Even if fantasy sports is considered a game of skill in your state, chance or luck or whatever you wish to call it inarguably plays a role in the outcome, and your husband still can lose plenty of money betting on it. So even if the law says he’s not gambling, your husband has broken the spirit of his promise to you.
QI am a proud alumnus of a small New England college, to which I have been a generous contributor over the years, the crazy-to-me politics currently in vogue on the campus notwithstanding. Like many alums, I occasionally send in news for the alumni magazine’s class notes column. Well, two years ago I reported that my family and I had moved to North Dakota, where I’d taken a job as a project manager on the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Apparently my job is too politically incorrect to be mentioned, because my news never appeared. I contacted the magazine, and the editor told me that there hasn’t been room for my 35-word announcement, though he found space to include another alum’s long account of his daughter going to North Dakota to protest the pipeline, and she’s not even an alumna. What do you think I should do? Though it may seem childish, I’m inclined to forgo Annual Giving until my job is respectfully reported in the class notes.
AYou’re not being childish, the editor of the magazine is. Do the college a favor and write to its president, calling to his or her attention the fact that the editor apparently is allowing his personal politics to determine what is and is not included in the class notes.
We hope you get a response that says, in effect: “Thank you. Censoring the alumni news is totally unacceptable, and I assure you it will never happen again.”
If you don’t — if you get a shallow apology along with words to the effect of “but you need to understand” — then it’s time to consider cutting back your annual contribution — cutting it back to an amount so nominal that it highlights for your alma mater that there’s an economic cost to suppressing reports on those alumni whose activities and accomplishments are at odds with the ideology du jour.
Please email your questions about money, ethics and relationships to Questions@ MoneyManners.net.