Sports betting became legal in North Carolina on March 11. This may be news to non-residents. To residents, it’s been hard to miss the blatant and ubiquitous advertising bombarding us both in real life and digitally. My 10-year old son starting asking me about sports gambling after repeatedly seeing billboards on the interstate.
Son: Dad, what’s a 5-team parlay?
Dad: It’s a type of bet that either turns your college
fund into a full ride or enters you into an indentured servant relationship
with the college of your choice.
Son: Oh… Thanks…
Gambling is a funny thing.
In the back of your mind, you know you’re going to lose. Logically, casinos and sports gambling
entities don’t become massive conglomerates by paying out more than they take
in. Quite the opposite! They know that if they can keep you gambling,
you will lose. So why does anyone choose
to gamble when the odds are that your money is going to find a new home? I mean, it is an optional activity that
millions of people choose to participate in every day. What’s the appeal?
Well, some people do win big, cash out, and have a
lot more money than when they started.
The rest just write off the expected losses as an “entertainment
expense.”
But what about when it’s a real-life situation and you need
to win? It’s not about entertainment;
it’s about having a house for you and your family to live in. And I’m not talking about sports gambling,
but about tenant rental applications.
Especially now, many tenants do not have good credit, good
reports from former landlords, and/or sufficient income to afford higher-priced
rental homes. But they need to have a
place to live.
So, tenants with substandard credentials are submitting
rental applications that cost around $75 per adult. They know, especially with homes marketed by property managers,
that it will be an uphill battle; most will uncover negative information and
have standards that the tenants know they cannot meet. And there are not enough owner-managed homes
where there is little tenant screening and where they can give a “down-on-my-luck”
narrative and get a sympathetic owner to approve them (and this does not often
work either). So they have no choice but
to gamble and keep applying, though it is draining their finances one turned
down application at a time.
But what if they could stack the odds in their favor and win? That would be appealing! And this what we’re seeing and hearing
about. Don’t have good credit? Buy a false credit and criminal report. Need income?
Photoshop paystubs that show more.
Need a former landlord to say something nice? Create fake landlord reports.
It’s raising the stakes.
If a landlord winds up approving a wayward applicant, the costs can be
significant if the tenant reverts to previous ways and does not pay. Not only is there a loss of rent, but now
there are court costs and attorney fees for filing for eviction. To boot, public tax dollars are funding pro
bono lawyers to congregate in the courthouse to train tenants to appeal the
rulings regardless of whether justice was served or not; this can make the process
go on indefinitely as cases enter an overwhelmed court system, while the tenants
stay in the rental houses. And when a
court victory eventually happens, the landlord is often left with costly fix-up
of a battered house.
The prospective tenants may be gambling on false rental
applications ($75), but the real gamblers are the landlords who are not
screening their tenants thoroughly ($10K+).
Legal sportsbook gambling may be new to NC, but attempting
to illegally improve the odds is not a new concept. Smart landlords will run their screening
checks thoroughly or outsource to a property manager whose job it is to keep up
on the latest schemes.
Happy Landlording!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment