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Ralph welcomes Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times investigative reporter, Eric Lipton, to give us the over/under on how professional sports in the U.S. is now\xa0part of a multibillion-dollar corporate gambling enterprise that can now even reach children. And before you buy toys for your loved ones this holiday season you need to hear our interview with Teresa Murray, director of U.S. PIRG\u2019s\xa0Consumer Watchdog office, discussing their latest report on dangerous toys, entitled \u201cTrouble in Toyland.\u201d

Eric Lipton is a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and an investigative reporter for the New York Times. He traveled to Topeka, Kansas to report on lobbying and sports-betting legislation for the New York Times\u2019 new series that examines how the sports-gambling industry has expanded in the US.

The end goal for the sports betting industry is not sports betting. It\u2019s actually something they call \u201ciGaming\u201d... They\u2019re pushing states that have already adopted sports betting to move on now to iGaming. And we\u2019ll see how successful they are, but already we have witnessed\u2014just since 2018\u2014 the largest expansion of legalized gambling in United States history.

Eric Lipton

Yeah, it\u2019s true that many people bet on the side\u2014 college basketball or Super Bowl betting\u2014 that\u2019s been around for so long. But with the institutionalization and the legalization now it\u2019s become such a part of the enterprise of sports. It has fundamentally transformed the relationship we have with such an important part of our culture.

Eric Lipton

A major-league ballplayer is not going to strike out in a key game in order to collect some hidden gambling bets from their family or friends. But it\u2019s terrible for appearances, and it\u2019s fertile for suspicions\u2014 where you\u2019re sitting there, watching, and you know that there are all kinds of endorsements and entanglements, and you say \u201cAh, he couldn\u2019t have bungled that play! That was deliberate.\u201d And so, there\u2019s a stench that begins arising by people who suspect that this greed does penetrate the games.\xa0

Ralph Nader

Teresa Murray is a Consumer Watchdog with the US Public Interest Research Group Education Fund, and she directs US PIRG's Consumer Watchdog office, which looks out for consumers' health, safety and financial security. She is the primary author of \u201cTrouble In Toyland 2022\u201d, the Consumer Watchdog\u2019s annual toy safety report.

We have an increasing number of smart toys. Which, on some levels, can be good\u2014 maybe it keeps the kid\u2019s interest, maybe there\u2019s an educational value\u2026 The problems are when these toys are invading our children\u2019s privacy, collecting information about them, maybe without the parents\u2019 knowledge. And then in some cases the information can be used to market to the child, which is wrong. Or spy on the child, which is creepy. Or in some cases perhaps even stalk the child.

Teresa Murray

Families should realize and remember that just because a toy is for sale, it doesn\u2019t mean that it\u2019s necessarily safe. It could be a recalled toy. It could be a counterfeit toy. Or it could be a toy that\u2019s just not appropriate for your child.

Teresa Murray