Bitcoin Fixes the Incentives: Turning Compulsive Gamblers into Compulsive Savers

Brendan Sorsby’s most recent betting scandal that has rocked the college sports world is an indictment of fiat and our modern culture more than anyone thinks. To give a bit of background for the Bitcoin community: the transfer from Cincinnati, QB Brendan Sorsby, was due to make a massive 4 to 5 million dollars this upcoming season for Texas Tech. In April, Sorsby turned himself into a betting rehab facility to seek treatment for addiction. Sorsby bet 2900 times from 2022-2026. This included games from when he was playing at the University of Indiana. This is the Pete Rose of college sports, in other words: betting on his own team.

Unfortunately for Mr. Sorsby, this story has placed him in the spotlight; however, far too many young Americans specifically young men have fallen into his shoes of addiction. According to an annual student gambling surveys, 75% of all students say they see or get pitched daily about sports betting and gambling. 56 to 68% of all male students bet multiple times a week, and unfortunately, up to 15% of all students are compulsive problem bettors.

Far too many people have been forced, in this high inflation, high debasement world, to take unrealistic risks in a desperate attempt to get out of the fiat rat race. These companies advertise themselves as such: "Use our prediction market for financial freedom." It’s absolutely disgusting how these companies use people’s desperation against them to extract every single cent they have left. We can't place too much blame on these desperate young people; they truly feel hopeless, and anything that gives them a sales pitch for an immediate way out is always going to be favored.

How does Bitcoin fix the betting environment we are living through today, and can it? I believe personally that Bitcoin is the ultimate savings technology. Forever, until Bitcoin, we haven’t been able to properly save as humans. This is why so many young people are forced into impossible betting situations. Bitcoin, with a programmable and well known issuance schedule, helps fix that. We can now tell young adults with 100% certainty what the issuance or inflation on Bitcoin will be in 4 years, 10 years, and 25 years. This helps encourage savings.

Education is the most important tool to help people understand the importance of Bitcoin: the fixed supply, the censorship resistant nature, and the irreversible nature of a block. Explaining these pillars of Bitcoin these computer science tools will help others change their mindset and become long term time horizon thinkers. The most important way to get people to learn is by making it fun and engaging.

In the context of betting, we need to gamify the savings experience and encourage people to save. We need to make stacking sats a competitive sport in the same way. I want people to transform into compulsive savers. Every time they get their paycheck, I want them to think: "How can I pay off all outstanding debt, and how can I stack more sats?"

We have to find a way, as a Bitcoin community, to change the incentives in our society. This is how something like the Sorsby scandal can take place. He was betting late in the evening on sporting events such as Romanian soccer matches, Turkish basketball games, and obscure doubles tennis tournaments. At no point did any of his friends or teammates inquire about these obsessions. It’s almost expected and encouraged in this culture; it’s not a taboo thing. This is the true indictment of this story far more so than a player betting on his own game and possibly costing himself millions of NIL dollars.

An entire generation of young men has enabled and encouraged extremely risky betting parlays. We see it online, and I’m certain I’ll have a comment on this exact post making fun of people for not trying to parlay their bets. They’ll call people "chicken"; they’ll call you "stupid." If you are one of those bettors who is going to comment saying, "Well, hey, I’ve made my money from sports betting for years on these apps, loser," I’m going to say you're a degenerate liar. It is beyond well documented that these companies have algorithms, computer infrastructure, and experts to examine every single winning bet. If you’re actually winning, the house cuts you off immediately. So, only losers are betting consistently; the house always, always wins, no matter how many bots tell you otherwise.

I want to help transform the incentives in this country to encourage savings in the general public. I want to give young people hope that there is a certain future they can look forward to. I want those same young people to yearn for saving as much as possible. We need to change the culture so young people can encourage someone like Sorsby to find a better path for his future. I really don't want this to be a punching bag against Texas Tech or Sorsby; he’s just the most well documented and public figure who has been afflicted with the gambling bug. I really hope he has gotten the help he needs, and if you or anyone you know is addicted to gambling, please seek help.

I want to start by apologizing. I have tried to make this a conversation on a podcast; however, I can’t seem to save the audio I create. If anyone knows which app or platform is best for creating an audio file and posting, please share. I wasted a lot of hours this month saving audio that got deleted. I really hate to do anything live, but if I must, I will moving forward, because doing audio edits was incredibly frustrating and didn’t return any results.

Thank you for reading!