{"product_id":"the-house-always-wins","title":"The House Always Wins","description":"An investigative narrative revealing how smartphones, deregulation, and pandemic isolation turned America’s pastime into its newest addiction.   The House Always Wins traces the rise of legal sports betting from a fringe hobby to a $120-billion-a-year industry, reshaping how Americans watch, wager, and lose. Economist and health policy analyst Roger Bate explores how pandemic isolation, relentless digital marketing, and permissive state policy created a perfect storm of opportunity and risk. Bate draws on original surveys, field interviews, and international case studies to reveal how betting moved from racetracks to smartphones—and how a culture built on self-control began to mistake speed for freedom.    From suburban bars to billion-dollar platforms like DraftKings and FanDuel, The House Always Wins uncovers the moral and economic contradictions of a market built on human weakness and where over 95 percent of participants lose, some catastrophically. Bate argues that the challenge isn’t whether people should gamble, but whether a democracy can manage risk at the speed of an app. Combining investigative reportage with humane insight, this book exposes the hidden arithmetic behind America’s newest public-health crisis.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57513585049973,"sku":"9798895652886","price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9798895652886.jpg?v=1787220358","url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/products\/the-house-always-wins","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}