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Dave and Busters is betting… on betting

Dave and Busters was an entertainment hub for arcade obsessed kids, and now, it’s one for degenerate teenage gambling. The arcade/entertainment/restaurant chain is planning to allow those 18 years of age and older to bet on arcade games, it announced on Tuesday.

They should have a lot of wagers to manage:

• D&B has seen over 30 million unique visitors to its 222 locations this year.

• In the past year, the company’s stock has risen over 50%.

The house always wins

Those who are apart of Dave and Busters loyalty program, which has roughly 5 million members, will be able to make regular arcade games and everything from bowling to laser tag a bit more interesting by putting a small wager on it.

And the chain will have some help to jumpstart its new gambling venture:

• It teamed up with gamification software company Lucra, which already allows those who play tennis and pickleball for fun to play for money.

• Lucra doesn’t describe itself as a betting service, rather, they give people the option to play in “real-money contests or challenges,” which it says takes away the “house always wins” proverb as it doesn’t involve games of chance.

There may be a strategy here: The sports betting boom (especially among young people) has increased engagement with fans. D&B is assuredly hoping to replicate the success the betting industry has had and entice those who want to game and gamble more than they already have.

All in on gambling

Since the landmark Supreme Court ruling in 2018 that favored the online sports betting industry, gambling (especially online) has taken the nation by storm, particularly for those between 18-25.

• The projected valuation of the online gambling industry has spiked to $10.98 billion, according to Research and Markets’ new report.

Sports betting has become legal in over 30 states, and even in those where it isn’t, there are loopholes. While major sports gambling platforms like Draftkings and FanDuel are banned in many states, apps like Sleeper and Underdog are often allowed (I do not know from experience… I promise).

With this, a more alarming trend has surfaced: According to the American Psychiatric Association, 10 to 15% of young people have significant gambling problems, compared to fewer than 4% of adults. D&B’s bet on gambling only makes sense, as their target audience is already entrenched in emptying their wallets in online wagers.

Tesla resurrected itself with China visit

While Tesla had a less than stellar Q1, its already made up some ground by meeting with its second biggest market. In less than a day, talk of Tesla’s struggles were substituted with hopes of its new tech jumpstarting overseas after an unannounced visit to China on Sunday.

This weekend, Elon Musk made an unplanned visit to China where he and high-ranking government officials reportedly reached a deal to green light Tesla’s advanced driver-assistance technology in the country.

Wheel and deal

China is Tesla’s second-largest market and the largest electric car market in the world, so there’s strong optimism that Tesla’s Full-Self Driving software (FSD) could bear fruit in the country. During his visit, Musk dealt with two huge roadblocks in the way of Tesla’s expansion, bringing in further anticipation of its ventures in the country.

• Musk reached an unprecedented deal for Tesla with Chinese internet company Baidu, which allows Tesla to use its navigation and mapping services.

• Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y received data-security clearance, ending restrictions that prevented Teslas from entering certain areas of the country.

In the past year, Tesla’s sales in China have been meager in comparison to previous years. This is in part due to government restrictions but also competition from Chinese EV maker BYD, which offers more affordable vehicles and better self-driving capabilities.

BYD overtook Tesla in quarterly sales earlier this year, becoming the biggest EV maker in the world, but has since failed to meet production and manufacturing targets. This gave Tesla the perfect opportunity to strike and even the playing field in the market it once dominated.

The deal helped Tesla recoup some of its losses

Tesla recently reported its first quarterly revenue decline since 2020 in addition to missing delivery targets (much like BYD), partly due to a decrease in demand for electric vehicles domestically and abroad.

But these concerns didn’t last long, as Tesla stock jumped 18% on Monday after news of Musk’s China visit made headlines. As China looks to increase foreign investment amid declining sales and a problematic economy, a deal with Musk is a win-win for everyone… except for domestic EV maker BYD.

Health

The bird flu was discovered in milk

Not to ruin your Friday morning cereal, but you might want to double check the milk you just bought for extra feathers. Recently tested samples of pasteurized milk found nearly 20% of them contained virus fragments, according to the FDA, meaning bird flu is more common on dairy farms than previously thought.

Experts say they don’t yet have a grasp on how widespread the disease is, and that the avian disease mutating to inflect mammals is a concerning development. The bird flu was found across dairy farms in nine states, officials said.

Should you stop drinking milk?

No, and before you dump out the cereal I ruined for you, the fragments found aren’t live viruses, meaning the pasteurization process is killing anything that would be harmful to you.

There have only been two confirmed cases of humans in the US contracting the virus (each of them non-threatening) and only one during the current outbreak, but they also had contact with infected cows.

But still…

The development is a little concerning. Scientists are scratching their heads because this outbreak is the first time bird flu has been detected in cattle, which shows that the virus mutated to infect mammals. And we don’t really know how its able to jump between species.

While the FDA says there is virtually no risk to humans, and agriculture business (of course) along with government officials downplay concerns, the World Health Organization is warning of the mutating virus with an “extraordinarily high” mortality rate seen in humans.

What are we doing to stop it? On Monday, lactating cows started being tested for the virus before crossing state lines, and the USDA announced the same day that ground beef would start being tested in states where the virus was found. If one case of the bird flu is found, producers are forced to kill the entire flock, according to the USDA $183 million was allocated to producers “to kill and dispose of flocks and for virus elimination work.”

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Grab Bag

Tourists will now have to pay to enter Venice

If you’re planning on having a nice vacation in Italy’s most famous city, you’re going to have to pay a small fee. Day-trip visitors to Venice will now have to pay a little over $5 to visit the floating city, making it the first major city to charge for this kind of entrance fee.

What? Why?

The charge comes amid warnings that the city’s infrastructure can’t support the overtourism it’s experiencing. So much so that UNESCO, The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, even threatened to put Venice on its list of endangered heritage sites if the city didn’t announce some kind of change.

• The $5 fee only applies single-day visitors, who account for about 75% of the tourists that visit the city but add less than 20% to total tourism spending.

• Some critics say the fee goes against Italy’s constitutional right to freedom of movement, while others claim it doesn’t do enough, as a 5-euro fee would barely do anything especially since 30 million people visit every year.

People are tired of tourists: Tourist taxes have gone up in New Zealand and Barcelona, the latter which even removed a congested bus route from map apps so tourists wouldn’t take up more space.

AI made this principal racist

While AI has been used for a lot of things, this was an unexpected turn. In Pikesville, Maryland, an audio clip of Pikesville High School’s principal purportedly going on a racist tirade shocked the school, and quickly spread on social media.

However, in a turn of events, it was found the rant was made with AI by a vengeful colleague, police say.

Here’s what the police had to say

Former Athletic Director Dazhon Darien used AI vocal software to copy Principal Eric Eiswert’s voice in the clip, provoking threats against the school and Eiswert’s family.

• According to the Baltimore County State's Attorney's Office, Darien, known as DJ at the school, was among the names mentioned in the audio clips he faked himself.

• Darien used school WiFi to access OpenAI tools in late 2023, and investigators found the same email address used to open the account tied to the manipulated audio tape.

• The audio clip was confirmed to be manipulated by Darien, and he is facing charges of theft, stalking, disruption of school operations and retaliation against a witness.

Why would he do this? Principal Eiswert was allegedly considering not renewing Darien’s contract, but this was because Darien was being investigated by the school for mishandling around $2,000 in school funds, according to police.

Problematic AI

As AI technology gets more advanced, especially voice cloning, misuse of it will only increase. These are just two recent examples:

• Last spring, CNN reported on an Arizona mom’s horrid experience with a call that cloned her daughter’s voice to fake a kidnapping and carry out an extortion plot, and although everything ended well, that obviously won’t always be the case.

• Recently, AI voice cloning was misused in a case involving BBC presenter Liz Bonnin. Her voice was copied without her permission and used in an ad campaign for insect repellent. Although mostly harmless, the consequences of the technology are evident.

OpenAI has been working on a new tool that can copy anyone’s voice with just 15 seconds of audio, but because of recent incidents, the AI software company deemed the tool “too risky” to be released.

As audio based scams become a prevalent issue, much like the case CNN reported, voice cloning seems to be a new age phishing scam and we will have to take steps to protect against it. FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel warned that consumers should be vigilant, even if they think they recognize the voice on the other end of the line.

Fast Facts

Miraculous Measurement: Have you had a buttload of wine? If you knew a “buttload” is an actual unit of measurement, you might have your answer.

Luggage Locator: Due to the major flood in Dubai, the major airline Emirates, has 30,000 pieces of luggage to return to customers. And that’s on top of the cancellation fees… yikes.

Eye Emotions: This test will tell you how well can you read someone’s emotions just by seeing their eyes. Not to brag, but I got a 32. 

Pressure Cooker: Researchers from South Korea developed a new way to grow synthetic diamonds that uses tens of thousands of times less pressure than current lab methods, and it only takes 150 minutes. They’re making pretty good time compared to the billions of years Mother Nature needs. 

Seafood Stealer: 100 cases of snow crab (worth roughly $30,000) were stolen from the back of a truck in Philadelphia.