The Old Man and the Social Ills of Gambling
Sports and gambling have traveled together many times in the past. In the early twentieth century, the most popular sports were baseball, boxing, and horse racing, all sports which have been closely tied to gambling. We wouldn’t have the legend of “Shoeless Joe” Jackson and the story of the “Black Sox” if gambling had never touched baseball. There are quite a few boxers who would not have climbed the ranks so quickly if not for men who were paid to fall. Pari-mutuel betting was closely intertwined with the rise of professional sports in many parts of the world. But in the twentieth century, the links between gambling and professional sports were weakened, even if they were never completely severed. Athletes were disgraced and banished from leagues, sports broadcasting kept its distance, and states limited legal gambling.
Now we are returning to a culture with more opportunities for wagers of chance. Many people are, rightly, worried about this trend. Season Four of Michael Lewis’s Against the Rules podcast is a standout for explaining the changes and cautioning listeners. We are already experiencing corruption in sports. The rise of businesses like Polymarket means that everything around us can finally be monetized as an opportunity for gambling. Kalshi will let you bet on phrases being uttered. You can bet on the duration of White House press briefings. When we talk about the social ills of gambling, we often focus on the risk of gambling addiction or crippling debt. We hear of parents gambling away homes and college savings accounts. But the social ills go far beyond losing savings accounts.
When Ernest Hemingway was living in Paris, he went to the horse races often. In many ways racing was primarily about wagering and there were many fixed races. Hemingway’s story “My Old Man” from In Our Time is a good account of the social ills that come with gambling. The story is narrated by a young boy, Joe, the son of an aging jockey. He and his father are Americans living in Europe after the Great War. Joe’s mother is dead, but the father and son have a tight bond and are always together. As Joe says, “I loved my old man so much.”
The plot is set in motion by an incident in Milan. Joe sees two men arguing and angry with his father about something. He does not understand what is happening, but he can see his father’s “face was white and he looked sick as hell and I was scared and felt sick inside because I knew something had happened and I didn’t see how anybody could call my old man a son of a bitch, and get away with it.” After that incident, Joe and his father move to Paris. A bit older and overweight, it is hard for his father to get mounts, but they make their way.
At one race, Joe is with his father when he gets a tip from a jockey and wins big money. Even though he heard the better horse would lose, Joe can’t help but cheer for him during the race. His father remarks on the talent of a jockey who could keep that horse from winning. Joe says, “Of course, I knew it was funny all the time. But my old man saying it right out like that sure took the kick all out of it for me, and I didn’t get the real kick back again ever.” Joe even resents the jockey who gave them the tip. “And that was funny, thinking of George Gardner as a son of a bitch because I’d always liked him and besides, he’d given us the winner, but I guess that’s what he is, all right.”
Joe’s life is entirely shaped by his father. His father says that one day they’ll get enough money and Joe will go back to America and to school, but for now he doesn’t study. He accompanies everywhere. One day they are at a café together and Joe sees a girl and wants to approach her table. The only line he can think of is, “Pardon me, but perhaps I can give you a winner at Enghien today?” He doesn’t work up the courage, but decides it’s just as well, because she might have thought he was a tout.
Things go well enough for Joe’s father to get a share in a horse and start riding again, for himself. This fills father and son with pride, but Joe’s father is soon killed in a race. Joe is crying and being comforted by George Gardner as they wait for the ambulance to take his father’s body away, when they overhear two guys who are tearing up mutuel tickets. One says, “Well, Butler got his alright.” Unaware of Joe’s presence, the other replies: “I don’t give a good goddam if he did, the crook. He had it coming to him on the stuff he’s pulled.” The first man agrees, “I’ll say he had.” Gardner says, “Don’t you listen to what those bums said, Joe. Your old man was one swell guy.” The narration continues, “But I don’t know. Seems like when they get started they don’t leave a guy nothing.”
Joe’s father was not killed because of his gambling, but his gambling brought Joe grief long before his death. Seeing a fixed race takes “all the kick out of it.” He loved horses and racing, and now he knows how many things are fixed. Joe loses his respect for the adults around him. His father is winning money and another jockey is helping them, but Joe reluctantly realizes that George Gardner is a “son of a bitch… I guess that’s what he is, all right.” When his father dies, Gardner says he was “a swell guy,” but Joe has just overheard that his father was “a crook” and he can’t quite disbelieve it, even though he loved his “old man so much.”
Most of today’s gambling is nothing like the numbers game, which typically involves guessing the last three digits of “the handle.” The numbers could not be fixed. Most of today’s gambling is for things that can be fixed—a point spread, a number of minutes in a press conference, an uttered phrase. This kind of gambling spreads far more corruption than just wasteful spending and the risk of addiction, it reduces the amount of trust we can have in everything and everyone around us. Even someone succeeding in the game, like Joe’s father, turns a child to a cynic and contributes to the corruption of the things they love, like sports.
You can break hearts without placing bad bets. Kalshi, Polymarket, DraftKings, and the like will take more from us than our money. How do we want to be seen by our children, and how do we want our children to see the world? These are important questions. When we consider the impact and the spread of gambling in society, we need to consider more than rising debt and dangerous financial risks. There are social ills that do not drain savings accounts.
Dr. Stice has taught at PBA since 2012 in the history department and in the Frederick M. Supper Honors Program.
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