{"product_id":"9798895652886","title":"House Always Wins: The Business, Politics, and Human Cost of Sports Betting","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn investigative narrative revealing how smartphones, deregulation, and pandemic isolation turned America’s pastime into its newest addiction.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe House Always Wins\u003c\/i\u003e traces the rise of legal sports betting from a fringe hobby to a $120-billion-a-year industry, reshaping how Americans watch, wager, and lose. Economist and health policy analyst Roger Bate explores how pandemic isolation, relentless digital marketing, and permissive state policy created a perfect storm of opportunity and risk. Bate draws on original surveys, field interviews, and international case studies to reveal how betting moved from racetracks to smartphones—and how a culture built on self-control began to mistake speed for freedom.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eFrom suburban bars to billion-dollar platforms like DraftKings and FanDuel, \u003ci\u003eThe House Always Wins\u003c\/i\u003e uncovers the moral and economic contradictions of a market built on human weakness and where over 95 percent of participants lose, some catastrophically. Bate argues that the challenge isn’t whether people should gamble, but whether a democracy can manage risk at the speed of an app. Combining investigative reportage with humane insight, this book exposes the hidden arithmetic behind America’s newest public-health crisis.","brand":"Simon and Schuster","offers":[{"title":"Paperback \/ softback","offer_id":50777251217694,"sku":"9798895652886","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0741\/8436\/0222\/files\/9798895652886.jpg?v=1788873435","url":"https:\/\/shop.simonandschuster.com\/products\/9798895652886","provider":"Simon and Schuster","version":"1.0","type":"link"}