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McCay Coppins of The Atlantic ruffled a whole lot of feathers with his Atlantic piece entitled "My Year as a Degernate Gambler".
The journalist offers up a long first-person piece detailing how he spent an entire NFL season gambling $10,000 to understand the boom in legalized sports betting in the United States.
Coppins, an Aldo Beckman Award winner for Overall Excellence in White House Coverage and twelve year veteran at The Atlantic, was given that $10,000 by his editors with the goal being to experience the modern sports-betting ecosystem (apps, parlays, props, etc.) firsthand.
"With the door locked behind me, I pulled out my phone and downloaded the DraftKings betting app," he writes. "I felt a certain thrill as I typed in my debit-card information and deposited $500. The first game of the NFL season was a few minutes away. Anything seemed possible."
To complicate matters, Coppins is a practicing Mormon. He's not really supposed to be gambling. After consulting with his bishop, Coppins went through with the assignment.
The experiment went as would be expected. Coppins lost all "his" money and the article headline pretty much speaks volumes.
U.S. gambling industry analyst, writer, advocate and consultant, Joe Brennan, Jr., didn't hold back any punches.
"As the author of @theatlantic piece, it’s time for you to sit back & receive the same kind of criticism that you leveled at sports betting, without hiding behind the “doth protest too much” affectations. Criticism of your piece is every bit as legitimate as your own," he wrote on his Twitter page.
The website Unabated pointed out what they deemed to be multiple flaws in Coppins journalism.
- Deeply, morally opposed to gambling
- Doesn't know the ML from the spread
- Betting with the magazine's money
- Refuses to heed basic betting advice from Nate Silver -
- Tails bet from Sean Perry
- Fired half his BR on the Pats in the Super Bowl
- Shocked he's down $10k
Coppins responded to Unabated's criticism.
"This is actually one of the websites I used to track the lines when I was gambling. Kind of hilarious how many of the objections from people who make money in this industry boil down to "he's bad at gambling" and "he's Mormon." Both true! But the hyper-defensiveness surprises me."
Isaac Rose-Berman, who covers the world of gambling via his substack and recently wrote an op-ed piece on the subject for The New York Times, offered his take.
"A lot of the anger and annoyance you’re seeing is not only about this piece, but frustration about the dozens of (fairly similar) pieces written by non-gamblers about gambling/gamblers. People don’t like when outsiders comes in and deride them (not saying that was your intent)."
Coppins responded.
"Fair enough, but I don't think the piece is especially derisive toward gamblers—it's hard on the industry that preys on them. I'd gently suggest there's a "doth protest too much" vibe in some of these bitter responses."
Then Rose-Berman offered this rebuttal:
"I don't disagree. Not saying it's the same but imagine I spent 3 months going to a Mormon church, wrote an article about how the sermons ruined me (for the Atlantic's cover story), and it was the 10th major article on the topic that year. I'd imagine most Mormons would be pissed!"
- Chris Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
