As March Madness betting rises, help for problem gambling is hard to find : Shots

Gambling – online and direct – is more widely accessible than ever, and the industry has revenue that demonstrates it. Last year, the total profit from US commercial game revenues was Over $70 billionAccording to the American Games Association.

Americans are expected to bet Estimated $3.1 billion Just the NCAA March Madness Tournament, this year it’s a legitimate bet. That’s more than I was betting on the February 2025 Super Bowl. $13.9 billion.

Dozens of states adopted the practice after a 2018 Supreme Court decision allowed bets outside of Nevada. It is currently legal in 38 states and the District of Columbia.

Online gambling and sports betting platforms have grown in the wake of that decision, and mental health experts say that research into addiction and gambling, as well as treatment for gambling in question, has not kept up to the industry’s changes.

“It’s very easy.”

“On your phone, money is not real,” says Jen, a woman who has struggled with gambling for years and is now in debt of more than $100,000. She asked NPR not to use her last name for fear of occupational influence. “It’s not specific, and you lose sight of the fact that you’ve just staked all this real money.”

She and others interviewed for this article say that platforms and online casinos that promote legal sports betting feel like video games.

“I was able to wake up in the middle of the night and gamble,” Jen says. “I was able to do it from bed. It’s very easy.”

Jen also struggles with substance use disorders. She says the main difference between that and gambling is that gambling is bad.

“The impulses come out of nowhere and the distance between you and your actions is very minimal,” she says. “I don’t need to call a suspicious dealer to ask him to deliver anything. I don’t need to take anything. It’s really just a matter of picking up my phone.”

Legal and illegal gambling

Industry representatives say society holds better hands with legal gambling than illegal gambling, and too many regulations drive people with gambling disorders into the illegal market.

“As a digital storefront right next to legal operators, there is a vast predatory, widespread illegal market that sits there,” says Joe Maloney, senior vice president of strategic communications at the American Gaming Association. The association represents not only casinos, but many online sportsbook companies that have been born.

The illegal market “is not investing in responsible gaming measures,” Maloney said.

Legal online gambling for Guardrail includes forced breaks, self-exclusion options and restrictions on those who continue playing and lose excessive money, says Maloney.

Data black hole

Part of the reason researchers say they don’t have a handle that is suitable for the width of the US problem gambling is that no one is measuring it. “It was the last time that a large national study was truly accepted because of the 1999,” says Michelle Malkin, director of the Gambling Research Policy Initiative at East Carolina University.

That research The number of problem gamblers was fixed at less than 1%. Malkin is working to update these data using existing state datasets and modeling. She has not reached the exact figures, but her research says it shows that the national prevalence of gambling in question is quite high.

Other studies provide clues about the impact of gambling on the public.

“If you look at adult men in their early 30s, you can see that legalization of gambling is related. Worst mental health There are reports of poor mental health days,” says Stephen Wu, a researcher at Hamilton University who measured mental well-being among the state’s various demographics after gambling was legalized.

Other studies looking at the effects of legalization Increased search The terms “gambling” and “addictive”; Links between the law Gambling and Domestic violence.

“Addict-based business model”

Neuroscience shows that gambling addiction can change the brain over time, just like substance use disorders. “ I think the response is very similar.” Christine Scaprenstudying psychology and addiction at Bryant University in Rhode Island. She points out the study It suggests that gambling victory offers the same kind of dopamine reward as the consumption of substances like alcohol. “You see this kind of modification in your brain,” she says.

Proponents of gambling restrictions say this kind of disturbed thinking and behavior benefits gambling companies. “We don’t make any revenue without addictive gamblers,” says Les Bernal, who runs the advocacy group, stopping predatory gambling.

Bernal refers to research from Wall Street Journal It showed that 70% of the profits from one online gambling company came from less than 1% of users. He says the states affiliated with the industry have set up an inherent conflict of interest.

“These are business practices that make all the money for the state,” Vernal says.

Ben Eu experienced this firsthand.

“There’s just whales and then there’s casual gamblers,” Yay says Gambler’s slang Who bets, wins, loses a lot of money. He says he personally handed $1 million to all sorts of gambling companies (legal, illegal, online, brick and mortar casinos) who have been struggling with the gambling in question over the years. Much of the money he lost was stolen from his family.

Legal bets on sports were limited to locations like the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino depicted here. However, a 2018 Supreme Court lawsuit opened the door to a phone app that can be used for bets.

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Ethan Miller/Getty Images/Getty Images North America

Among other things, he says, gambling cost him his first marriage and his relationship with his two daughters.

“My moral center and all the values ​​I had — when I was actively dependent — they are completely avoided. They sink to the deepest, darkest, darkest depths of your soul,” says Yey. “You won’t get them back when you’re trying to chase your next victory.”

After spending time in prison for the theft, Ichii is recovering. He hopes that one day he may reconcile with his daughters. “I don’t blame them for hating me or for not wanting to talk to me,” he says. “I will love them now and forever.”

What treatments work?

“It’s not a bad thing to legalize gambling,” says Malkin, a professor and researcher of gambling. “Most people can gamble in a healthy way, but they need to take care of people who can’t and focus.”

Malkin and other experts say society and the gambling industry have failed to acknowledge the extent of this need, develop widely available treatments for problematic gambling, and properly deploy prevention programs.

Experts who treat people struggling with problematic gambling say that some of the work helps individuals adopt new ways of thinking. “The currency could be an ego boost,” says Eric Weber, addiction counselor at Caron Treatment Center in Pennsylvania. Weber says that even without money, active addicted people are looking for a small way to “win” all day long.

Weber comes to work after his personal experience in gambling and says he is grateful that he wasn’t actively gambling when it became widely legal. “Since gambling legalization in 2018, we have just seen a wave of issues like this,” he says.

Many centers like his treatment in an outpatient setting, along with substance use disorders. Patients often suffer from both. Hospitalization facilities specializing in gambling are rare. Some estimates show that there are fewer than five people in the country. In part, according to therapists, that’s because insurance companies are reluctant to cover treatment for hospitalized patients.

However, many therapists who work with people struggling with gambling point to the need for specialist treatments that differ from those for other types of obsessive-compulsive behavior.

“You don’t take anything” Jodie Bectorda clinician who treats gambling disorders. “You had too much and you don’t just faint,” says Bettledo, access to finances is an important consideration. “You really have to target, do they have access to money? Do they have blocking software? Do you make sure you don’t have access to your own money, and your family will manage it all and make sure you can’t just go to the ATM and go to the casino?”

Bechtold says it is likely out of reach for many people until insurance companies start covering treatment for hospitalized patients. “It’s kind of a contradiction,” she says. “Your finances are very devastated, but do you have $10,000 to go to rehab?”

Malkin says treatment for people who have already taken their lives and run out of bank accounts is not enough. She warns that gambling is a growing issue on university campuses. “We need to outreach and educate early,” she warns.

People who pay for treatment

Industry advocates and those seeking more resources for intervention and prevention agree with one thing. Without legalized gambling, there is no revenue stream for treatment.

What they disagree is who should pay for these services and how much investment should be made.

Industry representatives point out that the state is already taking money from gambling revenue for treatment and intervention. Maloney, along with the American Gaming Association, says the industry is donating $130 million to “problematic gambling services, prevention and treatment.”

Maloney argues that gambling brings revenue “for important priorities.” He says the state can spend as much money as it would go back to treatment and choose.

But national supporters have warned that treatment is underfunded, especially compared to the multi-billion dollar investments the federal government puts into resources for addiction to alcohol, tobacco and other substances.

“We don’t have federal funding for gambling addiction,” says Cait Huble, a spokesman for the problematic Gambling Council. The group estimates the cost of problematic gambling to society $14 billion a year. “It’s decades behind in terms of public opinion and perceived it as a mental health condition,” Huble says.

Her group advocates laws that create federal funding streams for treatment and interventions for millions of people from the gambling industry’s interests.

Jen, a woman with more than $100,000 in debt, says none of the guardrails made a difference for her. She says she plays on both legal and illegal sites and often switches between platforms.

She is still working to bring her life back to normal, but the need for smartphones in modern life is complicated. “My last recurrence was in December. It was three months ago,” she says. “I don’t trust myself.”