gambling Archives

The gambling industry is going gangbusters.

Sportsbooks will make a record-breaking $3.1 billion on Americans’ March Madness bets by the tournament’s conclusion on Saturday, the American Gaming Association (AGA) predicts, comfortably outpacing last year’s $2.7 billion.

March Madness profits, and the estimated $1.39 billion Americans bet on February’s Superbowl, put 2025 on pace to become the gambling industry’s most lucrative year yet.

Bill Miller, CEO and President of AGA, waxed eloquent on legal gambling’s benefits in a press release announcing Americans spent more than $71 billion on gambling in 2024.

“Every dollar of gaming revenue fuels jobs, investment and economic growth — reinforcing why the legal industry’s expansion is so important,” Miller wrote.

Les Bernal, the National Director of Stop Predatory Gambling, says these economic benefits are nothing more than smoke and mirrors.

“Betting interests like to say that the money [they make] will go to some state interest like education, but this is a revenue source that makes money from people who are addicted to gambling,” Bernal tells the Daily Citizen.

Commercial gambling operations enable addicts, but they don’t clean up the financial or social consequences of gambling addiction. That, says Bernal, falls to taxpayers:

Who do you think pays for all the social services for that half of 1% whose lives have been ruined? Who do you think pays when [the gambler] steals from their employer and the company shuts down? Who pays for all those employees who lost their jobs?

The “half of 1%” Bernal references comes from a Wall Street Journal article finding PointsBet, an online sports book, made 70% of its profits between 2019 and 2020 from just 0.5% of its customers — gambling addicts.

This business model is industry wide. Online sportsbooks and gambling games use computer algorithms to identify compulsive gamblers and deploy “VIP-customer representatives” to keep them coming back for more.

VIP reps prevent out of control gamblers from quitting by offering well-timed rewards and vouchers for free bets.

“If you show a likelihood of chasing your losses — and, by that, I mean you gamble to recoup the money you lost gambling — you are the number one target demographic for the gambling industry,” Bernal emphasizes. “Because you won’t stop and you’re inevitably going to keep losing.”

Legal, online sports betting makes college campuses breeding grounds for gambling addiction. A 2023 survey of 3,527 college students by the NCAA found more than a fourth of students (27.5%) had placed an online sports bet. A startling 6% of respondents — 212 students — had lost $500 or more on sports betting in a single day.

Evan Ozmat counsels students at the University of Albany, where he is earning his PhD in psychology. In December 2023, he told Time magazine:

Since the beginning of [my counseling] three years ago, students have brought up, unprompted, gambling. We started asking about it in every appointment and everyone has something to say. It’s everywhere.

Ozmat compares the students’ experiences to drug or alcohol fueled binges:

It almost feels like binge drinking or methamphetamines, where they are going on benders. They’ll make bets and bets and bets and then wonder, “How the hell did I get here?”

Sportsbooks enable gambling binges by creating a seamless betting experience; the faster users can place a bet, the less time they spend considering the wisdom of another wager.

More broadly, the gambling industry markets to kids — future customers — using sports.

Sports betting has become inextricably entwined with American athletics — from TV ads, to stadium names, to sports broadcasters analyzing odds on air. Sportsbooks bombard kids with the idea that true sports fans gamble from the time they buy their first baseball cap to the day they place their first bet.

Consequently, kids begin sports gambling early and often, with no concept of the danger they’re in.

Ironically, sports betting actually worsens competition, and fans’ experience, by introducing incentives for athletes to perform poorly. Among the college basketball teams competing in March Madness, three are under federal investigation in connection with an NBA gambling ring. Players from three other colleges are being investigated for betting on themselves in fantasy games.

The remainder of March Madness will be filled with invitations to gamble. Bernal says parents can protect their kids in three ways.

The first is to simply forgo gambling yourself. Do not engage in behavior you don’t want your kids to emulate.

The second is adding gambling to the list of dangerous and addictive habits you warn your kids against, like vaping, drugs and watching pornography.

The third is to support online gambling and online gambling advertising reform at the ballot box. Bernal emphasizes:

We don’t allow Purdue Pharma, the opioid maker, to market to kids. That’s how addictive [gambling] is, and we’re allowing the gambling industry to market these hardcore products in the middle of the day, exposing kids to them.

Additional Articles and Resources

‘Addictive, Exploitative, Manipulative’: Les Bernal Breaks Down Predatory Gambling Ahead of the Super Bowl

Online Sports Betting Hooking Young Men on Gambling, Research Suggests

Online Super Bowl Betting Breaks Records

Forget Chiefs and Eagles. Super Bowl 59’s biggest winners will be sports betting operations.

Americans will shell out an eye-popping $1.39 billion on Sunday, the American Gaming Association (AGA) predicts, outstripping last year’s $1.25 billion record.

A national survey from Lending Tree indicates more than half of all male respondents, and 66% of Gen Z respondents, plan to bet on the big game. Of those, 63% plan to use an online sports book.

The Daily Citizen has previously reported on the risks online gambling and sports betting pose to families and kids. This year, we asked Les Bernal to weigh in on the gambling industry’s predatory business model, its fixation on young people, and what parents can do to keep their kids from getting hooked.

Bernal is the National Director of Stop Predatory Gambling, a non-profit and advocacy network dedicated to exposing commercial gambling’s effect on communities and families.

“Predatory gambling is America’s most neglected major problem,” he tells the Daily Citizen. “It affects everybody [in a profound way], regardless of whether you gamble or not.”

Bernal defines predatory gambling as any business with a “house” designed to make a profit:

When gambling is used as a business, there is a predatory and adversarial relationship between the gambling operator and its customer. That’s how they make their money. It’s the only business in the world where the business owner or the business operator is trying to hurt you.

Gambling operators have always endeavored to keep the high-rollers paying big bucks. But unlike brick-and-mortar operations, online casinos and sports books can use data analytics to find their preferred victims — gambling addicts.

“The number one indicator of an addictive gambler, or someone who could become [one], is chasing losses,” says Bernal. “By that, I mean, gambling another hundred bucks to recoup the $100 you already lost that day.”

Online betting groups make most of their money by finding and exploiting these users. Bernal references a Wall Street Journal article finding one online sports book, PointsBet, made 70% of its 2019-2020 profit on bets from just 0.5% of its customers.

The article follows the story of Kavita Fischer, a psychiatrist and mother who became addicted to apps like PointsBet and DraftKings. Though she tried to quit multiple times, special “VIP-customer representatives” used gifts and bonus tokens to keep her coming back.

“With a real-time view of a customer’s gambling activity, VIP hosts keep in close touch,” the Journal writes. “They track when customers last used the app and offer credits and other incentives to persuade their most valuable gamblers — by definition, the biggest losers — to return.”

Like all addictive products, says Bernal, gambling poses elevated risk to kids. But the gambling industry intentionally markets itself to young people by cozying up to sports.

Bernal uses Fanatics, the sports merchandise company, as an example:

[Fanatics] made their money in sports merchandise. So you have kids wearing Fanatics hats, collecting Fanatics sports cards, and getting used to the brand.

When they turn 18, the company starts transitioning them over to these gambling apps. It’s a pipeline to addiction.

Consequently, sports games and advertisements make gambling seem like a requirement:

What they’re doing is squeezing the sports around gambling. The marketing makes it appear that you’re no longer a sports fan unless you’re betting on something.

The intimate consequences of gambling addiction are brutal and cascading, says Bernal, but few people understand the cost it exerts on all American families. Taxpayers foot the bill for the social and economic ripple effects of one person’s missteps, from unemployment benefits to the cost of keeping someone in prison.

“You the taxpayer, long term, end up paying higher taxes for fewer services because of all these forms of hardcore gambling the state promotes,” he points out. “You pay even if you don’t play.”

Sunday’s game will be filled with invitations to gamble. Bernal says there are two ways parents can protect their kids — beyond refusing to gamble themselves.

The first is adding predatory gambling to the list of “dangerous, addictive products,” like smoking, vaping and drugs, to warn kids against.

The second is supporting online gambling reform at the ballot box.

“This needs to be a top issue for every parent in America,” Bernal contends. “We must demand reform that protects kids from predatory gambling interests.”

He puts it in perspective:

This Super Bowl Sunday, take Bernal’s advice and stay off the gambling apps. They’re not worth your time, your money or your kids’ wellbeing.

Additional Articles and Resources

Online Sports Betting Hooking Young Men on Gambling, Research Suggests

Online Super Bowl Betting Breaks Records

March Madness Sends Gambling Industry Profits Sky High

‘Addictive, Exploitive, Manipulative’: Les Bernal Breaks Down Predatory Gambling Ahead of Super Bowl