Betting on the National Anthem?!?!?!

From today’s WaPo, there is a story about gambling on Reba McEntire’s performance of the National Anthem.

Look, I get why people gamble on sports events. There’s a winner, a loser, and if you have some dollars riding on it, that increases your engagement. But I think America has lost their fucking minds when I read things like this:

“Right away, within a minute after it was announced that Reba McEntire was singing the national anthem,” Burns said, “I was watching all the YouTube videos of anytime she’d done it in the past. … What’s she wearing? What’s she doing? How long is she taking? How long does the word ‘brave’ last?”

Seriously, this was an odds maker who was scouring prior appearances by Reba to enable people to lay wagers on the fucking ANTHEM? Things like will it last longer than the first offensive drive and other topics around the “props” for the show. Halftime shows, celebration dances and the like.

Part of me was “you gotta be kidding me”, but then I realize how fucked we are as a country, and I just shake my head.

The biggest big game on the annual sporting schedule has become the largest draw on the national gambling calendar. Per a recent AGA study, nearly 68 million adults across the country are projected to wager more than a combined $23 billion — upticks of 35 percent and 44 percent, respectively, from last year — on Super Bowl LVIII. And more than half of those people, about 43 million, are expected to do so at a sportsbook, on the internet or with a bookie.

I am fucking exhausted hearing Trump followers howl about the economy, the way their lives are going, and how concerned they are about the southern border, and then reading that the rubes are gonna spend $23 BILLION DOLLARS on the outcome of about 40 millionaire athletes beating the snot out of each other on a field in Sin City?

I truly got nothing.

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