Thrilled to read this starred review in @ala-booklist.bsky.social. Thank you!

"Funt masterfully chronicles the meteoric rise in gambling and societal acceptance of a predatory business in a book that will simultaneously inform and alarm readers."

"Everybody Loses" is available for preorder.

My latest newsletter features an exclusive interview with the writer of a memorable sports gambling episode of "The Sopranos."

But I also wrote about The New York Times's unhinged account of a New Jersey baseball game in 1884.

Here's a taste of what I mean:

dannyfunt.substack.com/p/what-the-s...

Matthew Weiner wrote a remarkable episode of "The Sopranos" about Tony's descent into compulsive sports gambling.

For the first time, Weiner explains what that storyline sought to convey about the dangers of sports betting.

It's more resonant than ever. (link👇)

As Steve Coll recounts in his extraordinary “The Achilles Trap,” Saddam Hussein vented privately to GOP Senators visiting Baghdad about the US press for drawing the world’s attention to his gassing of tens of thousands of Iranians and Iraqi Kurds, which he’d denied.

Their reply:

Sometimes newspaper editors are too strict with word counts.

I came across this story in The New York Times from 1889. I would have appreciated at least a few more paragraphs, personally.

lol

Michigan sends cease-and-desist to BetUS, accusing the offshore sportsbook of taking bets without a license.

What's crazy is how brazenly sites like BetUS continue to advertise to Americans.

Here's an auto-generated ad just now on ESPN.com

Humpday motivation:

You can throw a sure-fire interception to lose the Super Bowl, but instead have it result in an insanely lucky catch that allows your team to win and you to be remembered as the greatest QB in NFL history.