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If you're looking for employment, and job security is important to you, go ahead and fill out an application for a counselor at Gambler's Anonymous.
Am I the only one noticing what's going on with the slowly building gambling addiction supported, of course, by those hard rectangles many can't go 30 seconds without looking at.
I have just as many March Madness brackets filled out as the next guy, and will always throw $20 in for a Super Bowl square.
But what I am talking about is the ease you can lose a week's grocery money betting on irrelevant games.
Ninety percent of the people betting have no idea what they're doing.
It's just easy. Really easy.
I was sitting with a friend at lunch a few weeks ago and he lost $175 on FanDuel betting on some low Division I basketball game.
My friend had no inside angle. He didn't know where the schools were, and I can safely assure you he couldn't name two players in uniform.
It was action and exciting, and, folks, that's a little scary.
We all know someone who has blown mortgage payments taking their chances with online poker, but how this is positioned now, with the 24/7 commercials with pretty blondes, and the shows on reputable channels designed to give you all the information to make you feel good about your next bet is a little frightening.
And just like Mo Green drawing chips for Michael Corleone, the betting companies make it easy for you to get started with plenty of incentives.
Nevada is No. 1 in gaming, the old Keystone state is No. 2.
Just be careful. Talk to your kids before the bank statement shows up with some losses that will take years to rectify.
Jeff Bartlett
Bellwood
Nits on rise under Shrewsberry
I have been a little hard on Penn State basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry this year, but I am happy to eat crow.
Nobody figured the Nittany Lions would have advanced into the Big Ten quarterfinals against No. 3 seeded Purdue.
Penn State lost four straight games to Ohio State the past two years, and the win in the Big Ten tournament negated those four lost games.
These kids came together and now are taken seriously in the Big Ten. Ohio State was a big loser last night, but the biggest loser was none other than Jamari Wheeler, a starter last year for the Lions.
He was one of eight players who entered the transfer portal.
Remember how impressed Tom Izzo of Michigan State was of Shrewsberry, saying he was the "right fit for the program."
I think Izzo was right, and Shrewsberry, with some solid recruits in the years to come, will have his team in the NCAAs.
Let's hope so.
Les Hart
Duncansville
Barbour's legacy: PSU mediocrity
Penn State sports won't miss retiring athletic director Sandy Barbour.
Since her hiring, we've become mediocre and worse in every sport except wrestling. Thank you, Cael Sanderson.
The administration rewarded her for a slow, downward spiral of football.
Bill O'Brien produced more with less than the $8 million dollar man.
Ice hockey, men's and women's volleyball, men's and women's basketball are currently non-factors.
Barbour's potential plan to reduce, renovate or replace Beaver Stadium seems to have been her desired legacy.
The new president and Board of Trustees should apply to the Ivy League. We will still be able to dominate nationally in wrestling -- and we can shrink varsity sports to 12-15 instead of 31.
Barbour should have hired Sanderson to coach the football team instead of rewarding her underachieving head coach.
Rerun the video of the 2021 PSU homecoming loss to Illinois -- the worst football team in Big Ten -- and compare it with the Big Ten and NCAA wrestling championships, led by Coach Cael, his staff and their dedicated, disciplined wrestlers.
Nine of the last 11 national championships should show PSU 's new president and AD what Penn State should be aspiring to -- not what Barbour has produced.
Ed Hill, Altoona