gambling

Online sports betting has exploded in popularity over the past half decade. Where professional and college sports once strictly banned gambling, ads for sports betting companies now appear on stadium walls, sports casters debate the “smartest” bets, and professional athletes sell their “picks” for winning wagers on sports they don’t play.

Children are growing up in a world which makes betting a mandatory part of the fan experience. Sports books like DraftKings and FanDuel spend millions of dollars each year portraying their product as harmless and fun.

This is a lie. Parents can’t afford to fall for it.

Online sports betting combines the addictive elements of traditional gambling and social media into one attention-monopolizing invention. For the first time, bettors can wager on everything from the length of the national anthem to whether the next pitch will be a ball or a strike — all without leaving their couch.

There’s always another game to bet on. Recovering problem gambler Jason found himself betting on European basketball.

“I was just trapped in my phone watching the gambling lines or watching this European basketball game,” the 26-year-old told NPR in February.

Jason attends gamblers anonymous meetings now but, before he quit, he recalled feeling “suffocated” by advertisements encouraging him to gamble.

“Sportsbooks’ whole goal is to load you with [advertising] so you feel kind of suffocated and you’re constantly thinking about [gambling],” he told the outlet.

Jason’s story supports evidence showing sports books use the detailed metrics they collect on their customers to identify problem gamblers like Jason and send them special advertisements and promotions designed to keep them betting.

The city of Baltimore sued DraftKings and FanDuel in April 2025 for unfair business practices like these, writing:

It’s bad enough that sports betting companies target vulnerable consumers like Jason. But children and minors regularly find themselves in the betting industry’s crosshairs, too.

More than 10% of the more than one thousand, 11- to 17-year-old American boys surveyed by Common Sense media self-reported engaging in sports-related gambling. Nearly six in 10 reported seeing gambling ads during sports games on TV.

An earlier report from the Lancet’s Public Health Commission on Problem Gambling estimated just over 10% of adolescents gambled online in 2023 worldwide. Of those who engaged in sports betting, the commission estimated as many as 16% could be problem gamblers.

Problem gamblers’ addiction, in turn, negatively affects an average of five people close to them, an authoritative Australian study determined in 2017.

The financial impact of online sports betting shows up in large, state-level data sets. A recent Harvard and UCLA-based study of more than 5 million people in 33 states found the introduction of online sports coincided with:

• A more than 12-point drop in the average credit score.
• A 25% increase in the delinquency rate on auto loan payments.
• A 27% increase in the delinquency rate on credit card payments.
• A 9% increase in the average amount of money in collections — not due to the same or fewer people having more money in collections, but because more people owed money than before the introduction of online sports betting.

The consequences of problem gambling extend far beyond the financial.

One in seven problem gamblers admit to engaging in child abuse, according to the Maryland Center of Excellence on Problem Gambling. Children of problem gamblers are as many as three times more likely to experience abuse than their peers.

As many as one in four problem gamblers report engaging in domestic violence. Intimate partners of problem gamblers are more than 10 times more likely to receive emergency medical treatment for physical violence than those of problem drinkers.

Nearly one in five problem gamblers also report experiencing domestic abuse. Upwards of 30% of problem gamblers experience suicidal ideation, per the American Psychological Association.

Parents can protect their kids from online sports gambling in three ways.

First, refrain from betting on sports yourself. Use your example to disciple your children against potentially dangerous choices.

Second, warn your kids against gambling like you would warn them against addictive products like drugs, alcohol and pornography.

Don’t allow them to believe the lie that online sports betting is completely harmless. For many, what starts as a harmless pastime leads to years of struggle and pain.

Third, support reform at the ballot box. Sports betting companies should:

• Be required to repeatedly verify the ages of their consumers.
• Comply with regulations preventing them from targeting problem gamblers.
• Be prevented from advertising during times, on programs or on games watched by children.

Protect your children from gambling! It’s your only safe bet.

Additional Articles and Resources

Counseling Consultation & Referrals

Online Sports Betting Significantly Worsens Financial Health, Study Suggests

Gambling is a Moral Issue

Online Super Bowl Betting Mushrooms, Fueled by Prediction Markets

Kalshi, Prediction Markets Make It Easy for Kids to Gamble Online

The NBA and MLB Investigate Gambling Corruption While Taking Money from the Gambling Industry

Online Sports Betting Spawns Rampant Fraud in MLB, NBA

Public Opinion on Legal Sports Betting is Souring, Survey Shows—But Young Americans Are Betting More Than Ever

Baltimore Sues FanDuel, DraftKings for Targeting Problem Gamblers

March Madness Sends Gambling Industry Profits Sky High

‘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

Credit scores drop, bad debt increases and more people go bankrupt when states legalize online sports betting, a recent study shows.

The UCLA and Harvard-based study, titled “The Financial Consequences of Legalized Sports Gambling,” quantified the effects of legalized sports betting on the financial health of nearly five million people living in 33 states which licensed in-person sports betting between 2018 and June 2023.

Researchers compared the impacts of in-person sports betting to those of online sports betting, which 19 of the 33 states adopted during the study period.

The results are shocking. While retail sports betting correlated with a small decrease in the average credit score — less than a point — and an 8% increase in the default rate on auto loan payments, the introduction of sports betting coincided with:

• A more than 12-point drop in the average credit score.
• A 25% increase in the delinquency rate on auto loan payments.
• A 27% increase in the delinquency rate on credit card payments.
• A 9% increase in the average amount of money in collections.

Researchers determined the increase in average amount in collections was not due to the same or fewer individuals owing larger amounts, but because more people owed money than before the introduction of online sports betting.

This finding dovetails with anecdotal evidence suggesting online sports betting does not keep existing gamblers from betting on the black market, as the gambling industry claims, but entices people who may never have otherwise gambled to start doing so.

Perhaps most disturbingly, researchers found the introduction of sports betting increased a person’s likelihood of filing for bankruptcy by about 25%.

“The rise in bankruptcy rates translates to one more bankruptcy per 10,000 financially active consumers, or roughly 30,000 more personal bankruptcies in the U.S. per year,” the paper explains.

These harms would be jaw-dropping if they truly impacted an entire state’s population equally. But they don’t.

The negative financial effects of introducing online sports betting hit people with credit scores below 600 points the hardest, followed by people with credit scores between 601 and 780 points.

“Overall, these results suggest that the adverse effects of online sport gambling implementation on financial health are primarily concentrated among the financially less secure,” the study reads.

Perhaps most importantly, researcher repeatedly emphasized that, because most of the financial data didn’t come from people with gambling addictions, the impact of sports betting on the “gambling population” is far greater.

This ominous fact correlates with what we know of the gambling industry, which makes a large portion of its money off people who are addicted to gambling. In fiscal year 2019, the sportsbook PointsBet made 70% of its profits off bets from just 0.5% of its customers, according to The Wall Street Journal.

National Director of Stop Predatory Gambling Les Bernal once told the Daily Citizen:

The financial harms exhibited in this paper are just one example of Bernal’s point — you pay even if you don’t play.

Additional Articles and Resources

Counseling Consultation & Referrals

Online Super Bowl Betting Mushrooms, Fueled by Prediction Markets

Kalshi, Prediction Markets Make It Easy for Kids to Gamble Online

The NBA and MLB Investigate Gambling Corruption While Taking Money from the Gambling Industry

Public Opinion on Legal Sports Betting is Souring, Survey Shows—But Young Americans Are Betting More Than Ever

Baltimore Sues FanDuel, DraftKings for Targeting Problem Gamblers

March Madness Sends Gambling Industry Profits Sky High

‘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

Less than one-third of Americans (29%) believe gambling is morally wrong, a Pew Research survey indicates, while a whopping 50% don’t feel gambling is a moral issue at all.

Meanwhile, Americans across the country are suffering cascading financial and social harms from highly addictive online sports betting and unregulated prediction markets.

Something isn’t connecting here, so let’s review a couple of basics.

The morality of any gambling activity depends on its consequences. When gambling creates or perpetuates addiction; financially, emotionally or socially harms others; contributes to poor stewardship; or takes advantage of the poor and vulnerable, it’s immoral.

The immoral, harmful consequences of gambling are almost exclusively associated with gambling against a “house,” a casino, sports book, lottery or other entity facilitating betting.

These businesses don’t just set the odds of every bet they offer — they also make money from their customers’ losses. That means the “house” has financial incentive to make sure consumers lose as much money betting as possible.

This incentive drives most of the predatory practices which cause gambling addiction. That’s why peer-to-peer gambling activities, like participating in a March Madness office pool or betting a couple of dollars on a round of golf, do not generate the same statistical harm as betting against a “house.”

Governments perpetuate immoral gambling by licensing gambling operations like DraftKings or FanDuel — effectively giving them permission to operate in exchange for a cut of the profits.

In these situations, the government has financial incentive to make the “house” more profitable, which almost inevitably leads to more favorable regulations and advertising opportunities for the gambling industry.

Some claim capturing a portion of legal gambling revenues reduces illegal gambling while benefitting taxpayers. In reality, when gambling is legalized, more people just start gambling — enough to keep the legal and illegal gambling markets bustling.

Meanwhile, taxpayers pay more to offset the social harms of state-promoted, addictive betting.

As Les Bernal, the national director of Stop Predatory Gambling, told the Daily Citizen in an exclusive interview:

As online sports betting becomes more popular, the people facing these consequences are getting younger.

Take the sports apparel brand Fanatics, which sells team merchandise at virtually every sports stadium in the country. Fanatics has an online sports book, which means as soon as a child buys his first baseball cap, he’s viewing advertisements to start betting on sports with Fanatics as soon as he turns 18.

“It’s a pipeline to addiction,” Bernal says, continuing:

Eli Thompson, a college student at North Greenville University, made the same observation in an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal.

“Today’s college sports culture makes betting feel like a rite of passage, and platforms like FanDuel, PrizePicks and BetMGM make it all too easy to pick up the habit,” he wrote.

Thompson describes several first-hand accounts of his friends, whom he calls “good kids,” getting caught in a trap they didn’t fully understand.

One friend bet $600 of a family member’s money before he got caught. Another secretly used his parents’ credit card to make up $50 he’d lost. Yet another sold his video game console and a pair of shoes to pay off a $500 sports betting debt.

“I don’t want to watch another friend sell his stuff or lie to his family,” Thompson concludes. “Because sports betting isn’t just harmless fun; it’s about guys my age risking their futures, one bet at a time.”

Thompson’s friends — and their families — have lived through the harmful effects of gambling against the “house.” Their experiences are not one-offs. These companies design their platforms to identify and prey on problem gamblers.

Online sports books use data analytics to analyze users’ behaviors and identify those which may be struggling with gambling addiction. In a lawsuit from last year, the city of Baltimore alleged FanDuel and DraftKings use this information to send targeted advertisements and promotions to problem gamblers.

“Access and robust user data, coupled with the [VIP] hosts’ and managers’ directive to keep these players betting as much as possible, creates an extremely potent mechanism to break down the defenses of individuals struggling with a gambling disorder,” the filing reads.

The gambling industry has created a system designed to perpetuate and profit from immoral gambling. But Americans can’t begin to abolish that system unless we first recognize gambling can, in fact, be an immoral activity — one which harms some of our most vulnerable citizens.

Additional Articles and Resources

Counseling Consultation & Referrals

Online Super Bowl Betting Mushrooms, Fueled by Prediction Markets

Kalshi, Prediction Markets Make It Easy for Kids to Gamble Online

The NBA and MLB Investigate Gambling Corruption While Taking Money from the Gambling Industry

Public Opinion on Legal Sports Betting is Souring, Survey Shows—But Young Americans Are Betting More Than Ever

Baltimore Sues FanDuel, DraftKings for Targeting Problem Gamblers

March Madness Sends Gambling Industry Profits Sky High

‘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

Americans bet billions of dollars on the Super Bowl last weekend, with prediction markets offering bettors a new way to burn their hard-earned cash.

The American Gaming Association estimates Americans wagered more than $1.7 billion on Super Bowl Sunday through legal sports books alone.

It’s safe to assume users placed many of these bets online. Case in point: DraftKings, one of the biggest online sportsbooks in America, became the fifth most popular free app on the Apple App Store over the weekend, and the most popular sports app.

DraftKings claims it stood to pay out as much as $8 billion on Super Bowl-related bets Sunday — a massive amount of exposure driven, in part, by the record-breaking number of trades made on its prediction platform, DraftKings Predictions.

Prediction markets are federally regulated futures exchanges which allow users to trade event contracts — futures which become valuable when an event occurs.

DraftKings Predictions offers sports event contracts which are functionally identical to bets on its sports book. But, unlike gambling operations, prediction markets don’t need to seek states’ permission to operate. DraftKings Predictions is available to anyone over 18 years old, anywhere in the U.S. — including the 19 states which don’t allow online sports betting.

Kalshi, the biggest prediction market in the U.S., made money hand over fist on Super Bowl Sunday, too. Users traded:

• $500 million on whether the Seattle Seahawks or New England Patriots would win.
• $100 million on which song would be played first at the half-time show.
• $39 million on which celebrities would attend the game, including more than $23 million on whether Mark Wahlberg would show up.

The amount Americans wagered this weekend illustrates how online betting masquerades as an acceptable — even necessary — part of being a “true” sports fan.

Consider data from GeoComply, a location verification company which studied the number of people who bet online while attending a football game during the 2025-2026 NFL season.

According to the report, as many as one in eight people opened their betting apps at least once while in the stadium — not including those who traded on prediction markets like Kalshi.

Further, GeoComply found some stadiums inspired a statistically significant number of people to sign up to bet online. “Top venues,” the company reports, caused between 0.2% and 0.7% of attendees to open new online betting accounts.

If GeoComply’s data extends to the Super Bowl, a conservative 8,750 people checked their online betting apps at the game on Sunday and at least 140 opened new accounts.

Americans should not consider online sports betting on sports books or prediction markets normal — it’s a dangerous, addictive practice with tangible consequences for all Americans.

Online sports betting compromises the integrity of professional sports, markets to young people and makes most of its money off compulsive gamblers. Last April, the city of Baltimore sued FanDuel and DraftKings for using data analytics to target problem gamblers.

FanDuel and DraftKings make money from users’ losses. Kalshi and other prediction markets claim they do not have the same predatory relationship with their customers because they take a fee from every contract purchased — regardless of whether the user wins or loses.

But Kalshi isn’t just an exchange. It also makes money from its trading arm — a separate company which effectively bets against users by buying opposing contracts. This arrangement makes Kalshi’s business model as predatory as that of online sports books.

The cost of compulsive gambling affects more than finances. Problem gamblers are statistically more likely to experience and perpetrate domestic violence. They are also more likely than those with other addictions to experience suicidal thoughts.

American taxpayers pay for the fall out of problem gambling. Les Bernal, the National Director of Stop Predatory Gambling, tells the Daily Citizen:

Parents can protect their kids from online betting by warning them against predatory gambling, just like they would addictive products like pornography, drugs and alcohol.  

With prediction markets like Kalshi making it even easier for kids to bet online, parents should also carefully monitor their children’s internet access.

Additional Articles and Resources

Counseling Consultation & Referrals

Kalshi, Prediction Markets Make It Easy for Kids to Gamble Online

The NBA and MLB Investigate Gambling Corruption While Taking Money from the Gambling Industry

Public Opinion on Legal Sports Betting is Souring, Survey Shows—But Young Americans Are Betting More Than Ever

Baltimore Sues FanDuel, DraftKings for Targeting Problem Gamblers

March Madness Sends Gambling Industry Profits Sky High

‘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

Will NFL quarterback Josh Allen win this year’s most valuable player?

Will Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce get married this year?

Will Iran oust Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei by summer?

These are three of the innumerable bets offered on Kalshi, an online prediction market available anywhere in the U.S.

The federal government regulates Kalshi and its competitor, Polymarket, more favorably than online sports books like DraftKings and FanDuel — but the exchanges contain many of the same features that make online sports betting so addictive.

Here’s what you need to know about prediction markets — and why families should care.

Prediction markets are online exchanges where consumers buy and sell futures contracts.

Futures contracts refer to agreements between buyers and sellers to exchange a commodity at a predetermined price on some future date.

Traditionally, futures help business owners hedge against market volatility. A farmer, for instance, might enter a futures contract to sell his corn at a specific price. The contract protects the farmer and buyer from drastic changes to the price of the farmers’ corn, like those caused by a natural disaster.

Prediction markets like Kalshi, however, only offer event contracts — a kind of future in which the underlying commodity is whether or not an event occurs.

Right now, Kalshi users are buying futures contracts over whether Allen will win most valuable player. If he wins the award, users who bought “no” contracts must pay the agreed upon value to those who bought “yes” contracts.

Technically, yes — but it’s a controversial issue.

Event contracts are not new. For decades, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) — the federal regulatory agency which oversees futures trading — did not allow event contracts, deeming it too close to gambling.

It changed its policy in 2020, making Kalshi an official regulated exchange.

The CFTC did not allow sports event contracts until even more recently. In 2022, the commission banned Kalshi’s competitor, Polymarket, from the U.S. for offering event contracts on sports.

Now, the CFTC allows Kalshi to offer sports event contracts that mirror prop bets on FanDuel and DraftKings. In December, it lifted its ban on Polymarket, allowing it to roll out sports event contracts to a limited number of customers.

States like Nevada and traditional gambling lobbies like the American Gaming Association have sued to argue predictions markets should not be legal, but a definitive ruling could be years away.

Online sports books like DraftKings and FanDuel make money when their customers lose. They set the odds of every bet on their platforms to ensure as few people win as possible.

Kalshi, the biggest prediction market in the U.S., claims it does not benefit from customers’ losses because it does not bet against them. Instead, it offers a platform where buyers and sellers can effectively bet against one another. The exchange charges users a fee to purchase a contract, regardless of whether they win or lose.

Kalshi’s relationship with its customers is not nearly so cut and dry — but its argument convinced regulators to treat it as an investment platform instead of a gambling company.

Gambling companies like online sports books face costly regulations. They can only serve customers over 21 years old. They must be licensed in each state they operate in and pay a percentage of their profits to the states which license them.

In contrast, anyone over 18 years old can buy and sell event contracts on Kalshi. The federal government regulates Kalshi, which means it’s legal in every state and doesn’t have to give any of its income to state governments.  

Outside their regulatory differences, predictions markets and online sports books become more similar every day. Users can place the same bets on both kinds of platforms, often with similar odds.

In places where online sports betting is illegal, FanDuel and DraftKings offer their own event contract exchange platforms. Sports event contracts accounted for nearly 90% of Kalshi’s income from fees in 2025, according to Barron’s.

Kalshi differentiates itself from gambling platforms by claiming it does not bet against users. But Kalshi isn’t just an exchange — it has a trading arm which actively buys and sells contracts on the Kalshi exchange platform.

Kalshi does not disclose what contracts its trading arm buys and sells, or how much money it makes from it. But if Kalshi is effectively betting against its users and profiting, the prediction market’s business model is no less predatory than that of online sports books.

Prediction markets like Kalshi contain the same addictive elements as online sports books with fewer guardrails.

Online sports betting eliminates the natural obstacles, like going to the ATM to withdraw more cash, which might give a gambler time to think better of placing one more bet. Users can bet as much as they want, on something as small as whether the next pitch will be a ball or a strike, without leaving their couch or pausing the game.

Online sports books and prediction markets alike offer constant action, which means users can bet on virtually anything, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Compulsive gamblers can seamlessly switch from betting on the Super Bowl to Russian women’s handball.

This new, more addictive iteration of sports betting poses particular risk to young people, many of whom are already addicted to their phones. Meanwhile, the gambling industry — including prediction markets — is bombarding the next generation with commercials and ads insinuating gambling is an essential part of the fan experience.

Now, with Kalshi, people can place bets at just 18 years old, from anywhere in the country — even places where sports betting is illegal.

Online sports betting has caused tens of thousands of people who would never have otherwise entered a casino to develop compulsive gambling, which increases sufferers’ likelihood of experiencing suicidal thoughts and domestic violence. Young people with good paying jobs are waking up to find their bank accounts drained, their plans to get married and start a family delayed indefinitely.

Compulsive gambling rips apart lives and relationships. The ripple effects impact all American taxpayers, who foot the bill for closed businesses, layoffs, bankruptcy, hospital stays, prison stints and addiction recovery associated with compulsive gambling.   

Parents should warn their children against online sports betting and betting through prediction markets the same way they warn against other addictive products, like pornography, alcohol and drugs.

These conversations should dispel the myth that “gambling” only occurs in a casino. Gambling encompasses any activity in which a person bets money on an uncertain, unpredictable outcome. Gambling against businesses who benefit from customers’ losses is especially dangerous and likely to become addictive.

Parents should lead by example and refrain from online sports betting.

Parents should also prevent their children from accessing gambling platforms, including prediction markets, prematurely. The most effective way to do this is to control children’s access to the internet.

Additional Articles and Resources

Counseling Consultation & Referrals

The NBA and MLB Investigate Gambling Corruption While Taking Money from the Gambling Industry

Public Opinion on Legal Sports Betting is Souring, Survey Shows—But Young Americans Are Betting More Than Ever

Baltimore Sues FanDuel, DraftKings for Targeting Problem Gamblers

March Madness Sends Gambling Industry Profits Sky High

‘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