That's So Cincinnati with Blink's Leslie Mooney

Live via satellite, via cell phone, is Inquirer reporter Dan Horn, who we wanted to talk with briefly about his very recent story in which he describes his journey into all forms of online betting.

Dan, how are you?

I'm good.

Thanks for having me, guys.

Thank you.

So this was your idea.

I mean, this wasn't a story that an editor assigned to you.

You came to us and said, I've got this idea for a story.

What was what what gave you the idea?

Well, I think I'm a sports fan.

I know you are too.

And I think anyone who pays attention and enjoys sports has noticed just how often they see ads for gambling and all the quiet ways that it sneaks into your sports viewing, whether it's on an outfield wall or whether you're listening to a podcast and an ad pops up or you're watching ESPN and the ticker has the odds for every game you can imagine rolling underneath the screen constantly.

And so I think the idea was this is out there, but what is it really like to just do this? And so I thought that by signing up for a sportsbook app, in this case FanDuel, and a prediction market, in this case Couchy, it would be a good way to kind of get into that world, but also to heavily report a story that It explains how these things work, how prevalent they've become, and how they've become so enmeshed in kind of our sports and our culture.

So that was kind of the goal setting out.

And rather than just talking to experts about it, I figured, you know, let's do it for a couple months.

And you said yes, so go figure.

I said yes, and then we had to get all kinds of approval because the way we did this, you weren't going to be out any money if you were a terrible gambler.

We gave you some – we allowed you to expense a certain amount of money to get in – to get your foot in the door, so to speak.

And to do that in our company took – All levels of approval, including you had to sign a waiver.

Why don't you talk to us about the waiver you had to sign?

I did.

I think company legal was a little concerned I might enjoy gambling too much and decide that this was going to be a new way of life for me.

And so I signed a waiver that basically said that if this goes badly and I decide I'm going to get the kids' college fund and blow it all on gambling, that the company will not be held liable.

I think as I mentioned in the story, my wife noted many times while this was going on that she did not sign a waiver.

She would not hesitate to seek legal representation if things did go badly.