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All right, my buddy Nick Wright is about

0:06

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1:19

right, we like to bring on nick right as

1:22

often as we can. And after some

1:25

speculation if I had given up the

1:27

sauce, I'm here to announce that.

1:30

Oh there we go. Thank goodness,

1:33

I was out here drinking alone. You.

1:36

Your excuse last time was essentially

1:39

all paraphrase. You got

1:41

so hammered the previous two days with your

1:43

lovely wife that you needed

1:45

to detox for a man.

1:46

Well, you and I have discussed this.

1:49

We are with beautiful creatives.

1:52

It's every pod. This comes up

1:55

every pod. The listeners

1:57

of your pod know more about your wife

1:59

and my wife then close family

2:01

friends do. But yeah, sometimes I

2:03

let me finish your sentence. Sometimes, in

2:06

order to get on their intellectual or

2:08

creative level, or really

2:10

to remove some social awkwardness, we

2:13

need to have a couple of cocktails in order

2:15

for them to not be embarrassed when they're

2:17

out in public with us. That obviously

2:20

happens. So yeah, I'm with that. But

2:22

I interrupted you. So cheers. Good to see

2:24

to see you, And I know there's

2:26

a rant. There's something you want to start with. You wouldn't

2:28

even tell me. You were like, I have a rant, so

2:31

go ahead, let me hear it.

2:32

So you know, if you I

2:35

think we both think of ourselves as people that

2:37

are, you know, more progressive than

2:39

not. But there are two sides to every

2:42

coin and every argument. But I tend to

2:44

try to tell my kids be curious,

2:46

adapt travel, don't be rigid. It's

2:49

just no fun to be around. But

2:51

not everything new is right, and

2:53

not everything right is new. So

2:56

I have some things as an older guy with gray

2:58

hair that I'm a little old school, and

3:02

I'm gonna throw this out. Everybody's got

3:04

something where they like romanticize

3:07

the past.

3:08

Or they just they they can be a little

3:11

bit outdated. But it's okay.

3:13

We all like Like, I have a friend who just

3:15

loves like seventies

3:17

rock and roll. He just can't let it go.

3:20

I like some of it too.

3:21

It's okay, right, sure, So

3:23

here's mine. Yeah, my

3:25

wife likes being a wife. I like being a husband,

3:28

and I always feel that

3:31

it's sort of my job to

3:33

just figure shit out. I

3:36

don't like guys. I don't think it's masculine

3:39

to complain about your kids, about your

3:41

job, about the economy, about

3:45

your school, about your boss.

3:48

I don't think it's masculine my job. When my

3:50

wife brings me problems, figure

3:52

them out for her. You

3:55

open doors. She likes

3:57

the masculinity it sometimes

3:59

and sometimes she'll.

4:00

Laugh at it.

4:01

You're a guy. I like being a guy.

4:04

And when I watch sometimes the

4:06

media because that's the business I'm in,

4:09

and politicians

4:13

just constant grievance and constant

4:15

complaining.

4:17

I can't do it.

4:18

I don't think. I don't like it.

4:21

Figure it out.

4:22

If you don't like the economy, do a side

4:25

hustle, make corners. If you don't

4:27

like your boss, get another job.

4:29

If you don't like a cultural change, then

4:31

ignore it. You don't have to complain about

4:34

everything.

4:35

So there has been a

4:38

rapid So there have been two

4:42

very rapid I think cultural

4:44

shifts just

4:46

in the last ten years. And

4:50

one, I think, you know, cuts against

4:52

my side of the aisle, and one cuts

4:54

for my side of the aisle. So I will

4:57

tell them both because one leans into what

4:59

you're talking about. The one that cuts against my

5:01

side of the aisle is when I was

5:03

growing up, if people were

5:05

talking censorship, it was the

5:07

conservatives. It was

5:10

you know what I mean, it was we have to put

5:13

you know, this parental

5:15

advisory on this record and these

5:17

video games and this music.

5:20

And now in the last ten years. Yes,

5:22

there has been a level of where people that

5:25

I want to agree with and I tend to

5:27

agree with the stifling

5:30

of certain speech or this

5:33

makes me unsafe

5:35

has become very in vogue in some

5:37

circles. And by the way, I don't think that's meaningless.

5:40

I think it can be overused. And now,

5:42

if you were to tell me someone is trying

5:44

to stifle speech, I

5:47

tend to have a different look of who they are

5:49

politically than once upon a time. Right, So

5:51

that's a shift. Here's

5:53

another one, man, oh

5:56

man, the folks who

5:58

love to point out

6:01

and claim everyone is triggered and

6:04

they hate victims. God,

6:06

you're seeing to be the most

6:08

easily triggerable victim

6:10

mentality folks these days, like

6:13

every like no, no, no. The reason

6:16

I have a mediocre job

6:19

is because of DEI

6:22

rather than the fact that I barely graduated

6:25

my associates degree and I've kind

6:27

of been a mediocre employee everywhere.

6:29

The fact that, oh, my youth

6:32

expect me to walk

6:34

down the street, And what am

6:36

I supposed to tell my children

6:38

if they see someone dressed in a

6:40

way that I don't think associates

6:43

with the gender they were born. I don't

6:45

know be a fucking parent. Have a

6:47

conversation, is what you do? You've been

6:50

for years, right, use that as an

6:52

opportunity to have a conversation with your

6:54

child. And so there has been a real

6:57

switch as far as the

7:00

there is it. Once upon

7:02

a time, I think

7:04

we had a certain right

7:07

or wrong stereotype of what it meant

7:09

to be liberal and what it meant to be conservative.

7:11

Yeah, and a lot of those things have

7:14

been turned on their head. Yes, because

7:16

right now, if you were to

7:19

say to me someone

7:21

is trying to get

7:23

a book band, that's

7:26

almost come full circle. Like I used to think

7:28

that would be conservatives. Then there was a period of

7:30

time where it's like, well, not a book band, but

7:32

I do think that there's they want to ban

7:35

certain words used on you know what I

7:37

mean, on certain schools. And now

7:40

it's come back to, oh, a book band, Oh

7:42

there must be a gay parent in it, and

7:44

you don't want to have that awkward conversation with

7:47

your kids at the dinner table. So and

7:49

there is a there's a lot of woe

7:52

is me from folks that

7:54

consider themselves alphas, folks

7:57

that are like, I am the manliest man there

7:59

is, and yet all

8:01

of this shit has gone wrong and

8:04

you expect me to fix it.

8:06

You think it's my fault. And

8:08

what you were saying about your

8:10

relationship with your wife. I

8:12

think it's very interesting because this

8:16

is kind of a cliche, you

8:18

know, fight between spouses,

8:21

but where very often,

8:24

again to use kind of gender norms,

8:27

a woman comes to her husband says

8:29

this happened to me or this is a problem,

8:32

and the husband's immediate reaction is,

8:34

well, here's how we can fix it, and the

8:36

wife gets pissed, like, I don't want

8:38

you to fix it. I want you to like sit

8:41

with me in this you know problem.

8:43

But you and I are, and I think a lot of

8:45

people are in a way, and I think this tends

8:48

to be more men than women, where it's like,

8:50

no, let's just rather than like kind

8:52

of empathize about the issue,

8:55

try to solve the issue, and I think that can be frustrating

8:57

for certain people. I do think it

8:59

is very useful and helpful

9:01

in relationships. If whatever

9:04

your guys, whatever you perceived

9:07

you wanted your role to be as the husband. Yeah,

9:10

if that's the role your wife

9:13

before you guys were married, perceived she wanted

9:15

her husband to have, Like it is important

9:17

to me that I am the provider. Yeah,

9:20

that's an you can say that's toxic. It's

9:22

ego, whatever it is, it

9:25

is it is. And my wife's very

9:27

successful and owns her own

9:29

business. And you want to know, one reason

9:31

I'm not going to retire anytime soon. I would

9:33

be more likely to retire if she did. But

9:35

the idea that there's gonna be a day where I'm like,

9:38

honey, I need some money. I

9:40

can't do it. Yeah, I just couldn't do it. And maybe

9:42

that's bad, Maybe I shouldn't be admitting that, but that's

9:44

how I am. But also that's

9:47

who she wants. She doesn't want you know what

9:49

I mean. She wants someone motivated

9:51

in those types of ways, which is why it works.

9:53

Yeah.

9:54

No, Anna has said to me before, and she's

9:56

funny. This morning, she's in

9:58

an area of the country that's very cold, and I said, where

10:00

are you. She goes, I'm at TJ Max looking

10:03

for a winter jacket. And that's

10:05

why I love her, Like she would never go to expensive

10:07

store. She's like, I'm at TJ Max. They didn't

10:10

have it, so I'm going to uh, you know, Target

10:13

or wherever. And I'm like, right, I love you.

10:14

Some good but then somewhere yeah.

10:16

But she also said, a couple of weeks

10:18

ago, we did something that was reasonably extravagant

10:21

for us, and she said, you

10:23

know, you you talk about retirement. There

10:27

are some things, there are advantages.

10:29

Do you not retiring?

10:31

You make exactly right, exactly

10:33

right, I said to the I said, and

10:35

again, now we're just talking about our life, in our relationships.

10:37

That's fine. The audience. There's not all going on sports.

10:40

We can get to it later, I said to my wife,

10:42

not that long ago, because I'm I turned forty

10:44

this year, and that's a weird thing. Forty

10:47

is like a weird a thing psychologically.

10:50

Like when I turned thirty

10:53

five, my buddy called

10:55

me and was like, hey,

10:58

there is one big change thirty five.

11:01

And I'm like, what's that. He's like, you're

11:03

not professionally graded on a curve.

11:05

Ever again, I'm like, what do you mean.

11:07

He's like, when you're thirty three, you

11:10

get to be really good

11:13

for a young guy, You get to be an

11:15

up and comer, you get to be graded

11:17

on potential. He's like, when

11:19

you're nobody looks at the thirty seven

11:21

year old and he's like, well, he's going to turn

11:24

into the it's like you are now, you're just an

11:26

adult, like from thirty five on, you're

11:28

not graded on a curve anymore. And at

11:30

forty at least for me psychologically,

11:33

I need to I don't know,

11:35

I need to really have a plan laid

11:37

out of what I think I want to do. So I said

11:39

to my wife. I was like, I was like, I think I

11:41

want to do this ten more years and

11:44

she's like, what do you mean. I was like, ten more years.

11:46

Our youngest is in college. If

11:48

I'm not just a total schmuck, I'll

11:51

have the money set aside. And

11:53

then I was like, then I don't know, like maybe

11:55

I travel and play poker, maybe

11:58

I go to law school. And

12:00

she was like, you're not quitting.

12:03

And I'm like, but you hate how much

12:05

I work. She was like, yeah,

12:07

I think you work too much, but

12:10

you need to keep working. She's

12:14

like, you could work a little less. I'm

12:16

like, we'll be I was like, I've done the

12:18

math, like I think you know, we could have X amount

12:21

of dollars whatever it is. And what

12:23

she was saying is a she doesn't think I would

12:26

actually quit. What she's also saying is

12:29

yeah, but to live our lifestyle

12:32

if there's no more money coming

12:34

in, Like there's a level

12:36

of like how long are we gonna

12:39

live? Like maybe push fifty to fifty

12:41

five or sixty? Uh

12:44

yeah. So because I thought, I was like ten more years, I'll

12:46

do it ten more years. But she says, no, how about

12:48

this one?

12:48

So this When I was in high

12:51

school, I

12:53

can remember my mom saying, oh

12:55

you are she was British. Oh you're

12:58

such a scat of brain. I

13:00

can remember having girlfriends in

13:02

my twenties and thirties. You

13:05

are such a scattered brain. I really

13:07

like you. But you forget your keys, you

13:09

lose your wallet, you can't keep a bear of sunglasses.

13:13

So I remember telling Anne when I met

13:15

her, I said, here's what's going to

13:17

happen in my career because

13:19

the way my mind works, and I'm thinking about

13:22

rants all day, and I

13:24

lose myself sometime I talk to myself, I

13:26

lose myself, lose train of thought.

13:28

I said, I've been doing it since I started

13:30

at twenty three years old. But

13:33

once your hair is gray and the first number

13:35

of your ages six, then it's

13:37

viewed as always lost as fastball,

13:41

and I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, I lost

13:43

this fastball at fourteen.

13:46

This is my brain. I lose my

13:48

train of thought regularly. That's

13:51

not my age all. No, when

13:53

I've gone, you know, I've lost some marbles,

13:55

So I said, so whereas thirty five

13:58

maybe some line of demarcation. Six

14:01

is when your bosses start going. You know, that wasn't

14:04

just a mistake, right, getting

14:06

that's a different thing. So that's a different thing,

14:08

which is now you.

14:10

So the this is

14:12

again that I'm not quite

14:15

forty and you're not. You're not sixty.

14:17

I'm six.

14:18

I'm sixty.

14:18

Oh six, you just turned sixty? Yeah,

14:20

just turnt oh I missed? Oh okay, I'm bad at

14:22

birthdays. Well, a happy birthday. That's a big one. I thought

14:25

I thought you were just about turn sixty.

14:27

But the other things is

14:29

is, you know, I show

14:31

up at work with a broken arm, and people

14:34

are good with what I told him, But in the back

14:36

of their head, they're like, I wonder

14:38

if Nick was doing something he shouldn't have been doing.

14:40

You're sixty, you show up at work with a broken arm.

14:42

They're like, oh no, he fell in

14:44

that house. They're like, oh no, Like is

14:48

he okay? Like that? You're right

14:50

that there there are right now,

14:53

Collin Cowherd or like I'll use a good

14:55

example, a guy who I know we both

14:57

have massive like either personal

14:59

or professional affection or love for that.

15:02

It's so baked into how people

15:05

think of him. No one thinks it's because he's old.

15:08

Mad Dog can do every any can

15:10

make any mistake because he's made them forever.

15:13

Mad mad Dog has gotten names wrong

15:15

in these things forever. Yeah, so

15:17

because of that, if he does it,

15:20

no one's like, oh, he's getting a little older. It's like this is

15:22

who he's always been. So you

15:24

almost need built in that

15:26

people know who you are

15:29

in order you can't be the guy

15:31

who was super sharp on everything.

15:33

And then you know, as you get older,

15:36

start forgetting things start whatever

15:38

it is. That's a that's a different story.

15:40

Yeah, no, it's but I've

15:42

always known it's coming. I've always

15:44

known it's I just can't come to work with a cast on

15:46

my arm or all that.

15:47

Yeah, No, it's a problem. It's

15:50

almost problem for me.

15:59

There have been a handful of of friends

16:01

I've had in this business. You're certainly at the

16:03

top of the list of people who are mathey compartmentalized

16:07

well, and they all have the ability

16:09

to gamble well or be lawyers.

16:12

They'd be good lawyers and good gamblers. You're

16:14

one of those people.

16:15

That's so funny. What did I say I was going to do if

16:17

I quit this? I said, maybe go play poker and maybe

16:19

go be a lawyer. Exactly right, Yes, And

16:21

so that's that's how your brain works. One

16:26

of the things I think one of my bigger

16:28

criticisms of the media

16:31

sometimes the sports media all stand. The sports media

16:33

is just the naivete of

16:36

the sports media. The escort

16:38

business in America is largely run by professional

16:41

athletes.

16:42

I mean, it's just you go to a hotel

16:44

on the road, it's it's escorts.

16:47

It doesn't matter if it's La Houston, Atlanta, it's

16:50

baseball, hockey, bet like every

16:52

like.

16:52

It's it's you could not small street. Pro

16:55

athletes are probably the

16:57

two biggest at the centers and those

17:00

and it's.

17:00

Say what you want. It's legal in every city

17:03

in the country. Maybe not Salt Lake, but but but everywhere

17:05

else it's happening, right, and.

17:07

It's consenting adults. I'm not going to judge

17:09

that this is not I don't feel like anyone's

17:11

being Everyone knows what they're signing up for

17:13

sure.

17:13

The second thing is everybody

17:16

is gambling everywhere, everywhere,

17:19

everywhere. Everybody's got

17:21

bookies, everybody's gambling. And

17:24

finally, actually when a DraftKings

17:26

comes in, there's clarity. You can bet on everything

17:29

except the NFL and don't be in our facility.

17:31

Yeah, you can bet at anything else that's

17:34

actually helping the business. Now it's

17:36

like, just don't be here and

17:38

don't bet football, go bet anything,

17:41

so that creates clarity. Baseball, no illegal

17:43

bookies and don't

17:46

bet baseball. So I don't look at it as

17:48

a negative. I look at complete

17:50

clarity on what you can bet on everything

17:52

and what you can't our sport. So this

17:54

is around about way of getting into Otani.

17:58

Is I think.

18:00

And celebrities Billy

18:02

Joel lost ninety million, Robert de Niro eighty

18:05

eight, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Tim

18:07

Duncan, John Elway, smart people,

18:09

great degrees, great schools, have

18:12

lost hundreds of millions of dollars.

18:15

There is more now than ever. It's

18:17

an industry to target rich,

18:20

young celebrities who are clueless about

18:22

business. So I look at

18:24

Otani and I think, yeah, I'm not shocked

18:26

as interpreter with nothing but downtime

18:29

and money use an illegal

18:32

bookmaker in southern California.

18:34

But I also think it's possible that

18:37

o'tani is not looking at

18:39

his bank account. Billy Joel was DeNiro

18:42

banks, charity schools get duped.

18:44

Yeah, so I talked about this because

18:47

I am Matthey and lawyerly, I'm

18:49

not good organizationally,

18:53

and I have weird I

18:55

have weird like anxiety triggers,

18:58

like I don't like I don't I have right

19:00

now if it looked at my phone and I'll tell

19:02

you the exact number. I have two

19:06

hundred and fifty four unopened

19:10

text messages, So like

19:12

that's not unresponded to. That is I

19:14

haven't even opened them and read them. And it's

19:16

not because I'm in group chats. I've got

19:19

so I So I say that because so

19:22

I have weird things about like even

19:24

if I know I have money, I

19:26

have I struggle like opening

19:29

the bank app, like I don't like to look

19:31

at it. I don't know weird thing in my brain. Okay, say

19:33

that if

19:36

someone was stealing from me, I

19:38

could go months and not know it. There's

19:41

three there's three people who basically

19:44

have access you know what I mean, And there

19:46

are people I trust. There are people that

19:48

I you know, either handle my investments,

19:50

my taxes, or make

19:52

sure my agent's paid. All of that. Those

19:55

three people, if they and

19:57

by the way, even when

19:59

I they do check, like what do they do they send me

20:02

a bank statement? Those are easily forged,

20:04

Like if I did to do a people

20:06

do not every month

20:09

do a real self audit if

20:11

they are paying people to handle their money.

20:14

Having money stolen from you is

20:16

just truly, in my

20:19

opinion, mostly bad

20:21

luck. It means the person you

20:23

trusted was dishonest or had a problem,

20:25

whatever it is. And I'll take it a step further.

20:28

This is what I discussed this so I do. Who

20:31

would be the single easiest person

20:34

in the world for me to

20:36

steal from? The answer is my

20:39

son because he

20:41

trusts me implicitly. He

20:43

relies on me for things that he doesn't

20:45

know about, like hey, how do I file my taxes?

20:48

What do I do? I have all of his information

20:51

and he would never ever think

20:53

that I would be taking advantage of because

20:56

I have always worked for him, helping

20:58

him out all of it. Well,

21:02

who in the world do

21:05

you trust more than the

21:07

person who speaks for you

21:10

and translates for you in

21:12

a foreign country. You

21:15

come to America, don't even speak the language.

21:18

Right, every interaction you have this

21:20

guy is attached to. Of course

21:22

you're going you have to trust him implicitly

21:25

with everything. So if

21:28

he's gonna steal from you, you're

21:30

not gonna see it coming because

21:32

then all of it, Like if you have to worry what this

21:34

guy steal from me, then you also have to worry

21:37

is he lying to my employer? Is

21:39

he lying to my agent? Like every single

21:41

interaction you have that

21:44

he's involved in. So I

21:47

I think it is totally plausible

21:49

that Otani could have a few million

21:51

missing and not know it. I think it's

21:53

totally plausible that this guy would have full

21:55

access to it. The part of the Otani

21:57

story that I want more investigation

22:00

on is multi layered. One is this

22:03

bookie that gave

22:05

a guy a multimillion

22:08

dollar credit limit. I want to

22:10

know more about that because I've gambled

22:13

and I know how credit works, and I don't have Otani

22:15

money, but I do have Otani's translator

22:18

money. Yeah, and I you know what I mean. And

22:20

it's hard to get a credit. It's hard to get a

22:22

credit line. With any bookie in America higher

22:24

than fifty thousand dollars, we're

22:26

talking about a million plus. So I'm interested

22:29

in that was that guy trading? Did the bookie

22:31

think Otani was making the best even if he wasn't. The

22:33

other thing that I want to know about is this because

22:36

the part of the story that I don't understand

22:39

is there seems to be a thirty

22:41

six hour period between

22:43

when the angels

22:46

and authorities believed,

22:49

oh, the interpreter has been doing

22:51

something wrong and when

22:54

they and from that there

22:56

was a thirty six hour period where from

22:59

that moment nobody he was like, Hey, we

23:01

need someone else that speaks Japanese

23:04

to update Otani.

23:05

Right.

23:05

There seems to be a day and a half where they were like, interpreter,

23:08

you're in trouble. Now, go tell Otani

23:10

you're in trouble. And it's like, wait a minute,

23:12

Yeah, that doesn't happen to me. That

23:15

does that mean Baseball or the Angels or

23:17

somebody was like just hoping, please let this go away,

23:20

please? You know. I don't know, so they're

23:22

a part of it, part of the story that doesn't

23:24

I'm like, hmmm, I need more information

23:27

there, but I do not. I

23:29

don't think it is. I think it is

23:32

more likely than not that Otani didn't

23:34

do anything here right then he was a victim.

23:36

I think the most likely outcome that

23:38

Otani had money stolen from

23:40

him by someone he trusts. Yeah, or

23:43

go ahead, sorry, And I.

23:44

Do think the Dodgers in Major League Baseball

23:47

are praying he didn't know anything,

23:50

and if it comes in gray, that

23:53

will be he didn't know anything.

23:54

And by the way, I also I don't

23:56

know if this would be against Baseball's rules or not. But

23:59

if the end is that

24:01

Otani knew his best

24:03

friend was gambling and

24:06

he covered it for him because the money

24:08

is all fake to him anyway, I

24:10

wouldn't judge him for that at all. Maybe that's against the

24:12

rules right right now, that's

24:15

now I would judge him if it's like, but

24:17

now I'm going to tell everyone you stole from me and you got

24:19

to go to prison. That then I'd be like, Okay, that's a

24:21

problem. But so we'll see what it comes out. I

24:24

don't think. But my gut reaction is

24:26

not Otani was bet. It just wasn't.

24:28

It doesn't make sense, Yeah, it doesn't

24:31

logically, I don't think that's how that works.

24:33

And I and here's the other thing. If he

24:35

was betting, he's not wiring

24:38

the money from his account, right,

24:40

Like there's a he would have been more subtle

24:43

about it if he were better. Yeah, And I and

24:45

I think.

24:46

Like whenever I whenever I hear the

24:49

kind of the do gooders in the media lament

24:51

gambling, I'm always like

24:54

I said this to John Middlikoff. If you want to be

24:56

a journalist, then be a journalist. And journalists

24:58

have to report both sides. The

25:01

average bet by DraftKings and FanDuel

25:04

is four dollars. Hard to break

25:06

your family on that. And the disturbance

25:08

distortion rate is one percent, meaning

25:10

one percent of gamblers get in trouble. I

25:13

have to read a one eight hundred number after every spot.

25:16

The distortion disturbance rate with alcohol

25:18

is six percent. And they tell

25:20

you know when to say when, so

25:23

are we closing all the bars?

25:24

Stadiums?

25:25

Ply you with alcohol it hurts your brain, your

25:27

liver, your family, your bank account. So

25:30

I think a lot of people are using

25:32

this OTAWNI moment to waive caution

25:35

flags of this gambling thing

25:37

is terrible. No, like

25:40

anything else, anything

25:43

that is fun, it can be

25:46

abused, used, and I think we are

25:48

going through a period in sports. Rick

25:50

Neuheisel gotten in trouble years ago at the University

25:52

of Washington for betting a March Madness pool. It got

25:54

him fired. Gambling has

25:56

always been something that is

25:59

mistakes or made aid. There's a lot of

26:01

money, it's fun, it's young people, they

26:03

have cash. I don't think O Taani

26:05

is a signal that gambling is

26:08

I never thought it was a virtue, but that

26:10

it's it is this problem in

26:12

America. We've been doing it forever.

26:14

So so couple things. So

26:16

I I agree and disagree with

26:19

you on this. So I

26:22

I think that we

26:24

can have an honest

26:26

conversation about

26:29

Listen, there are a lot of things

26:32

that are going to

26:35

cause some very significant

26:37

harm to a percentage of people that do it

26:40

that we just say we don't I don't want to say we don't

26:42

care. But it's that's the cost

26:44

of living in a free society essentially, you know what

26:47

I mean that we're just now. I

26:50

I do think that the

26:54

that there there's two things that I

26:56

think should be at least

26:58

looked at. One is the

27:01

ease with which because you mentioned

27:04

alcohol, that I

27:06

think a fair distinction is I

27:09

can't hear an alcohol add and

27:11

grab my phone and a shot

27:14

comes up, right like the fact that the ease

27:16

with the z constrictionless

27:18

part of it. Yes, I think has

27:21

it has some unintended consequences

27:23

that when it's like, hey, gambling's legal is

27:26

Supreme Court chains laws. Gambling is legal, but

27:28

in order to do it you got to get in your car go

27:30

to a casino stand for like, you know what I mean.

27:32

So there are so I do think that there

27:35

could be some push and pull

27:37

there. To me, the bigger gambling

27:39

story this week was not Otani. It was the kid

27:42

in the NBA Porter, Michael

27:44

Porter Junior's brother, who

27:48

the circumstantial evidence makes it seem like he

27:50

was banging on his own personal points

27:53

and rebounds unders to the tune of

27:55

ten twenty thirty grand. So that

27:58

now, people,

28:00

if I asked me, people ask me all the time,

28:04

do you think games are fixed?

28:06

Like?

28:06

Absolutely not. I'm like now, college

28:08

games some definitely. And

28:10

do I think that we will have a referee

28:13

based officiating or a betting

28:15

scandal in one of the major sports in

28:17

the next few years? Yeah, I do, just

28:20

because college kids don't have any

28:22

money. Refs don't make a ton of money, and

28:24

you can make fifty grand one hundred grand.

28:26

So I think that could happen. But that,

28:28

by the way, happened forever. Okay,

28:30

there have been gotten college that's legal,

28:32

illegal gambling that can happen. The

28:36

thing that so, But for a pro athlete,

28:38

anyone that has the ability to throw an

28:40

NBA game makes so much

28:43

money. Being able to win forty grand,

28:45

which is about the most you can bet on an NBA game,

28:47

doesn't make sense. The only people who could really throw

28:49

a football game or quarterbacks. Yeah, you

28:51

know, so it doesn't make sense. But

28:55

now all of a sudden, it's like, oh, I can

28:57

bet real money on in

29:00

individual player props

29:02

props. Yeah, now we

29:04

are talking about an area where there

29:07

is this John Tay Porter. I

29:09

don't know that he did it or he didn't, but the Johntay

29:11

Porter story will not be the first one world

29:14

not be the only one. And you see it

29:16

in other sports.

29:18

You've seen it for you like you see it in tennis.

29:20

Tennis, it's a big problem, you know what

29:22

I mean, Certain guys who don't make a ton

29:24

of money and can make ten

29:27

fifteen percent of their annual salary

29:30

by doing something that really does feel

29:32

victimless, because if you are the

29:34

eighth man on an NBA team

29:36

and you're like, man, I just got to check

29:39

in and then say my hamstring hurts.

29:42

I don't even know that it's going to hurt the team, and

29:44

I can make twenty grand. People are

29:46

gonna do that, Flatley. People are gonna

29:48

do that. And the only now, the reason

29:50

I bring it up in this context is those

29:53

player props. When I had to bet

29:55

with a bookie, Nope, you couldn't say

29:57

to a bookie, hey, man, I'd like to

29:59

take Dante DiVincenzo under nine

30:02

and a half points, and I'd be like, oh, fuck yourself,

30:04

pal, you know something, I'm not taking

30:06

a bet, And so those

30:09

markets didn't exist. But now

30:11

the player props are big market, so I do think

30:13

we'll see more of it. It doesn't mean you have

30:15

to have a prohibition on it,

30:18

but we have to be honest about the

30:20

likelihood of it, and the incentive structure

30:22

is changing versus fixing games,

30:24

which pro athletes are not going to do because you

30:26

can't there's no not real money

30:29

in.

30:29

It right now. I do think I've said

30:31

this before Henry Hill,

30:33

Boston College or Boston University.

30:37

I think college athletics,

30:39

especially pre nil, I

30:42

think a lot of players felt like they were being used.

30:45

They hate a coach, they want twelve

30:47

thousand bucks. They got a girlfriend, they want

30:49

a new car. There is no Just

30:52

like college basketball, cheating was way

30:54

worse than John Wooden's era than it

30:56

is ten years ago. There's a

30:58

magnifying glass. I think college

31:00

basketball, there's three hundred and sixty teams. It

31:02

used to be in the sixties, seventies, eighties, and nineties,

31:05

twelve games a week were televised.

31:08

It was so much easier than you didn't

31:10

have the comput I mean, good God, to

31:13

think about something that's not analogous, but you

31:15

know, it was at the beginning of Ted Bundy's killing

31:17

spree where states could link

31:19

up and go. I mean it used to be neighboring

31:22

states had no idea. I had no idea,

31:24

just go from place to place. I had no

31:26

idea who he was. And now literally

31:28

you can find DNA and

31:30

go find a guy that did something forty eight

31:32

years ago. The advancements on finding bad

31:35

guys, well, there were no advancements

31:37

in the forties fifty sixty seventies, eighties, nineties,

31:40

five thousand bucks to a kid in college

31:42

was generational.

31:43

It fell well. And so that's

31:46

that's the part of it for the college athletes

31:48

that I think people just don't remember

31:50

how broke they were in kylege oh

31:52

I Colin, I don't

31:55

know if I've told you this story on the air or not. It's not

31:57

I mean, it's twenty years ago now, but

31:59

it's not something I'm proud of. I

32:02

I lost.

32:06

I lost one thousand dollars in a poker game

32:08

in college. Not a college poker game,

32:11

a in this in

32:13

this city of

32:15

South Syracuse, some Armenian

32:18

fellas and some real

32:21

a real guy's game. And I owed a

32:23

thousand dollars. And I'd

32:25

been playing in the game for like a year, and

32:29

I had till Friday to pay the guy

32:31

money. And I had like two hundred

32:33

dollars to my name, and I owed him a thousand

32:35

bucks. So I went to a

32:37

different game with the two hundred bucks

32:40

and I'm like, the only way I'm going to get this is

32:42

to try to spin it up. I did not.

32:44

I lost it. And

32:46

I went to the guy who runs that game, and I'm like, hey,

32:49

can I borrow one thousand dollars? And

32:53

he's like, why are you asking for this?

32:56

I'm like, because I owe it to that guy.

32:59

You know, he he knew who it was.

33:01

And he's like, so let me just make sure I have it

33:03

right. You're more afraid of him

33:05

than you are of me, And

33:09

I'm like, well, I

33:11

think he would maybe hurt me. I

33:14

don't I know. I

33:16

I don't think you would. But that doesn't

33:18

mean I'm gonna stiff you. I just need

33:20

more time. And

33:22

he's like, you're borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.

33:25

It's a terrible idea. I

33:28

will loan it to you and

33:32

you will pay me back. And don't

33:34

you know think that our friendship will

33:36

prevent me from making sure I get it back. In

33:39

that moment, Colin, if

33:42

I were a college

33:44

athlete and someone was

33:46

like, hey, I can fix

33:48

this for you, ten X,

33:52

I was so scared and

33:54

so like out of moves, didn't

33:56

want to call my couldn't call my parents,

33:58

didn't want you know what I mean, like the those moments.

34:01

And so now you can say then that gambling

34:03

caused it. I understand that whatever it is, it's

34:05

just it is what it is. And

34:08

so that and that was one

34:10

thousand dollars. One thousand

34:12

dollars but in that moment a thousand dollars.

34:15

But I remember the day after that

34:17

happened, I was walking by a Jimmy

34:19

Johns and there was like a little

34:22

like Discover card kioskin

34:24

out in front, and it said

34:27

sign up for the If you sign up for the

34:29

credit card, you get a free

34:31

sandwich. And I was like, you're goddamn

34:34

right, I'm getting that free sandwich. And then

34:36

and that's actually what saved me

34:39

was I had never had a credit card, and then I realized, oh,

34:42

you can get a cash advance on a credit

34:44

card. So I signed

34:47

up for a Discover card with a thousand dollars limit,

34:49

like a three hundred dollars cash advance limit,

34:52

signed up for a couple more, paid

34:54

that guy back, and then you know, paid

34:56

sixty two percent APR on

34:59

those cash advances, you know what I mean?

35:01

Until probably I was twenty three years old,

35:03

but I really felt out of moves. Sure,

35:06

and so there is

35:08

a level of like,

35:11

what does someone at

35:13

nineteen twenty years old who

35:16

feels like they're in a rough spot, what

35:18

would they do to fix it? And

35:20

if the answer is you can

35:22

win, just don't win by twelve.

35:26

That feels like the you know what I mean, the easiest

35:28

fix there ever was. I'm not encouraging

35:31

it, but I also am saying right now as someone

35:33

who's been in those spots, I

35:35

don't think I would be like, oh, that person

35:37

is a bad person. I'd be like,

35:40

no, they got put. They were in a rough spot and

35:42

they felt squeezed. In defense,

35:45

if you will, of legal gambling on

35:48

things like that, it is way more likely

35:51

to be discovered and

35:53

found out now that

35:55

gambling's legal versus when it was

35:57

all through bookies, and you know what I mean, there wasn't

35:59

a real rightulated market on it. That part's

36:01

true.

36:02

Well, I mean, if you can hide

36:04

to our previous discussion on serial

36:06

colors being discovered, if you could hide something

36:08

like that for forty years, you could

36:11

hide a turnover

36:13

and a miss jumper in a nineteen seventy

36:15

seven basketball game that wasn't televised,

36:18

of course, the easiest

36:20

thing in the world.

36:21

Well, and there was. I think it was City College New York.

36:23

I think it was CCNY through I don't

36:25

know it was the national championship game, but I know there was a movie

36:27

about it from the fifties. They did in fifties

36:30

called City Dumps. It was the best team in the country

36:32

and you know, I mean they were accuse them of game.

36:34

Fix the

36:37

volume. Thanks for listening

36:39

to part one of the conversations with Nick. Don't forget

36:41

the check back for part two.