Have we tried turning off society and turning it back on again?

This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at Balls and Strikes.

In 2017, Americans legally wagered $4.9 billion on sporting events. Last year, they bet over $165 billion. And the true costs of their bets were even higher: One-quarter of sports bettors, surveyed by U.S. News last summer, worried that they couldn’t control their gambling. Over 30,000 people reach out to the National Problem Gambling Helpline every month.

“Problem gambling,” a term referring to an inability to control gambling behavior that results in personal or financial harm, is at least twice as common among sports bettors as among gamblers in general. It’s unsurprising, then, that Congress enacted a law decades ago that prohibited sports gambling throughout much of the country. But in 2018, the Supreme Court struck that law down, freeing states to partner with the gambling industry to profit off their vulnerable residents. A growing body of research shows Americans are now paying the price.

Hey there guys and gals, since I've been in the mood for bling this end-of-year season (as per recent discussion of the Fosi Audio LC30), let's grab another one of these VU meter boxes - as you can see above, it's the Douk Audio VU30 Pro (typically around US$150, Canada link, AliExpress), a 2024 upgraded version of the Douk Audio VU3 (non-Pro) which came out back in 2021.Similar to the

A couple of weeks back, I evaluated the Rotel RSS-900 speaker switch and in that article, I mentioned this device, the Fosi Audio LC30 VU Meter and Amp/Speaker Switcher (less than US$150 street price). Notice that I have the "Black" version (Amazon Canada link, AliExpress) which doesn't look like it's as easily available as the typical "Yellow" meter version and it also has a slightly higher