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cyberbarf

THE GOLDEN DRUG SPORTS GAMING

After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the federal government cannot ban States from legislating their own intrastate sports gambling, professional sports leagues have reversed course to get on the betting bandwagon. With the days of billion dollar cable television deals fading away with people cutting their cable cords and advertisers fleeing to targeted internet ads, team owners are desperate to find new revenue sources, especially milking their fans for every dime.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) was first to force its way into the casino bosses faces. The NBA wants a high license fee from the sports book (a percentage of the gross wagers) to use its teams, logos and scores. But there is older legal precedent which clearly states that the teams and leagues do not own the outcome of their sporting events. The scores and statistics are published as public domain information - - - facts derived from news events. In other words, the sports teams and leagues have no legal standing to demand sports casinos to pony up any sort of license fees to take bets on games.

But the NBA is a clever bunch of greed merchants. It envisions their fans watching the game at the arena being pushed prop bets through the stadium wi-fi connection. Bet on every play - - - who will score, whether there will be a foul, a turnover, etc. There are hundreds of possible bets to be made in any given game. So the league is trying to sell access to its fans in the stands. However, if the sports book can get around existing federal law which prohibits interstate gaming through common carriers (wire), it would not need the teams permission if a fan connects their smart phone to their ISP or gambling app to make bets. Another problem is that most credit card companies will not allow sports betting through their merchant accounts because of the federal laws harsh penalties.

The reason in the past leagues were leery of gambling was that it tainted their games integrity. The Black Sox scandal was about fixing a World Series by the players who were convinced by gamblers that the team owners were screwing them over. The team's value was tied to the fact that the games were played on an even level with both sides trying hard to win. But if the outcome is predetermined, then the fans get burned then lose interest in their teams.

But the internet's point and click features has created a world of addictive personalities. The idea of instant gratification is embodied in tweets, instagram posts and midnight Amazon shopping carts. If you want it, you can find it.

Illegal gambling is a multi-billion dollar enterprise. But gambling has hit its saturation level. Every person in the United States lives within one hour of some legal gambling, mostly through state lottery sales. And those state run lotteries were touted as the solution for funding state education systems, but those promises were broken as most states are floundering in red ink and declining academic schools.

But once there is a trickle of demand, the powerful will rush to get their share of the pie. Just as recreational marijuana laws have opened up publicly licensed monopolies (and the possibility of political corruption) in states (even though marijuana is still illegal under federal law), sports gambling is another vice that can be exploited for easy profits. Many social studies have found that legalized gambling hurts poor people more than the middle or upper classes. WE are living in the era of multiple addictions, and sports gambling appears to be the next drug populi.

Besides, why would a sports franchise want their fans sitting in expensive seats not pay attention to the actual game but be hunkered down for hours looking at the smartphone screens? All gambling does (like fantasy sports) is push numbers and aggregate winners in a category. At a basic level, it would be no different than sitting at your kitchen table for three hours with a friend playing rock, paper, scissors.

The real game will be when the casinos tell the leagues to go jump (they don't need their permission) which would make the sports owners to cry foul to state legislatures to write laws forcing casinos to pay a private company money from private transactions from private customers. Talk about your redistribution of wealth arguments gone haywire; billionaire owners crying poor from sports betting making money off their games.

cyberbarf

LAZY DELIVERY NET COMMERCE

The latest trend is ordering anything for immediate delivery to where you are located: groceries, fast food, dog groomers, etc.

In Seoul, it is a cultural core belief of the delivery man because office workers live, sleep and die at their desks. (Side note: the liberal government of President Moon have implemented various economic programs such as hiking the minimum wage by double digits and cut work hours to 52 per week - - - which have had disastrous consequences. Unemployment rates have skyrocketed and a million small businesses are expected to close this year because of the additional labor costs.) Within five minutes of an order, a person will be at your door with your food order (including fast food from McDonald's). The streets are filled with bike riders, scooters and mini-trucks racing through traffic with those perishable deliveries. But in Korea, spot deliveries can include just about anything - - - from coffee, snacks to copy paper and office supplies. The system works because there are sufficient entrepreneurial men who can make a living with the small surcharge given to them per order. The faster they get their shipment to its destination, the more deliveries they can make which means more money in their electronic bank account.

But America does not have that kind of low level work force willing to hustle and hurl against traffic for a couple extra dollars. Just like in WALL-E, we have gotten fat and lazy sitting in our overstuffed living room lounge chairs overstuffing our faces with tasty but greasy foods. If it is cheap and convenient enough, most people (especially the young) will order for delivery.

It certain respects, the social aspect of meeting friends to go to a cafe or restaurant for dinner is passe. People are keeping in touch more and more through instagram, facebook and private chat rooms/messaging services. So the idea of going out for an evening on the town is a relic of their parent's long lost past.

Sears, the last old school national department store, has been a zombie corporation for almost a decade. It has sold off its famous brands while it continues to shutter its stores. More and more malls are losing anchor tenants. Just as Main Street merchants feared Walmart ruining their businesses, now Walmart fears Amazon and its next day delivery services. You can now buy just about anything, and unbelievably even pharmaceutical drugs, on-line. For the sloths, you don't need to go to Walmart if Amazon will deliver the same merch at the same price.

The tide turned on brick and mortar retailers when customers decided they did not have to try on clothes. Women used to plan an entire day shopping at the mall - - - mostly clothes shopping with friends or family. But with generous return policies and easy return packaging, people have gotten comfortable in ordering personal items on-line. The Internet search engines can narrow a person's wants and desires into a few keywords. Type in black cocktail dress and you will get thousands of hits. A person is literally shopping hundreds of stores in a matter of minutes. In some respects, it is too convenient. As we have noted, for addictive personalities - - - dangerous.

Sociologists have concluded that many people fight their depression by shopping. These shopping sprees trigger the same endorphin rush of pleasure as a drug. It makes people feel good to buy things they like. Adding free delivery within a reasonable time frame, it is adding gasoline to the fire.

But even the easy delivery cycle has its perils. We have all seen security cam footage of thieves stealing packages left on a person's doorstep. Amazon is using private delivery companies instead of FedEx or UPS. These independent contractors tend to throw or leave packages on the stoop instead of ringing the door bell. The idea of quick delivery is more important than customer service, who will have to deal with angry customers missing their packages.

Will the pendulum of shopping reverse course back to brick and mortar shopping at malls or down Main Street? Or is the pendulum broken? So long as major companies continue to push quick and cheap door-to-door deliveries, it is doubtful that the trend will change.

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cyberbarf

SAME OLD SAME OLD SITE NEWS

From cyberbarf's August, 2018 edition, you would have thought that this site would have a significant format change.

Well, that was the plan. The new web page design software was purchased and loaded into the lap top. But the manual was thin, the templates fairly useful, but the learning curve more intense than expected from a simple page designer.

Add in the fact that Ski's real job took up a lot of real time, the change over of his three sites new pages was put on hold. The holiday long weekend was supposed to play catch-up on all things non-primary work related, but family events have cropped up as well.

The porting of the old files or links is something that has worked out. This site has an extensive archive which we would like to maintain, if possible. The interface with the old site folders to the new labeling requirements may be a challenge. There has to be a work-around after some trial and error. So the plan remains the same, but the time frame is subject to change.

So we are back with the old page design and layout.

And the current Real News Komix, SHOW HACK! has been on hiatus since the computer that creates that comic was crashed by a hard disk full error message. In other words, that computer drive was filled to capacity and started to over-write itself. It took a while to find a capatable external hard drive to back up the old drive so that the boot drive could be cleared of excess files. Some would say, why don't you just update your comic software on your newer laptop? That is logical, but since SH is a 3-D based image cartoon series, all of the sets, characters, designs and renders are trapped in that old computer. We don't want to re-invent the wheel when we do not have to.

So if you are looking forward to the new site, be patient until Ski's patients runs out.

cyberbarf

THE WHETHER REPORT

cyberbarf

STATUS

Question: Whether a court's ruling that President Trump's Twitter account is a public forum which he cannot block negative tweets have ramifications to other public figures?

* Educated Guess

* Possible

* Probable

* Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

* Doubtful

* Vapor Dream

Question: Whether Amazon's checkless check out grocery store procedures migrate to other retailers?

* Educated Guess

* Possible

* Probable

* Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

* Doubtful

* Vapor Dream

* Educated Guess

* Possible

* Probable

* Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

* Doubtful

* Vapor Dream

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