Rob Minnick was in a bathroom in Paris when he realized he might need help. He’d flown 3,700 miles to explore the French capital, and he kept disappearing every 10 to 15 minutes.
“People must have thought I had the worst stomach ailment in the world,” he said of the February 2022 trip. Though his stomach was fine, he wasn’t: Minnick had developed a gambling problem.
He stared at his phone, repeatedly searching for potential quick wins, from sports betting and slot-machine style games to blackjack and roulette.
He returned home to New Jersey, began attending Gamblers Anonymous meetings, and then didn’t gamble for eight months. In November 2022, he went to a casino and gambled large amounts of money for 12 consecutive hours, resulting in it taking him six months to pay off his debts.
Minnick was 23, broke and definitely in need of help. He handed over control of his bank accounts to his family and returned to GA meetings, a well-traveled path for many gambling addicts, but he soon found a less conventional path to recovery.
Less than four months after his last bet, Minnick was sitting in the drive-thru of a Dunkin’ Donuts, again staring at his phone, but this time he was telling me that the odds of landing on black or red at roulette were much lower than he’d imagined. Niche Videos The video was posted to TikTok and has been viewed over 1 million times.
Hundreds more followed under the username rob_odaat, which stands for “one day at a time,” a common mantra in help programs like GA.
One post Last year’s broadcast began with footage of someone punching a gambling machine, then cut to footage of Minnick. “I’ve been there, to be honest with you,” he said. “I’ve never broken a machine, but I’ve broken a lot of stuff in my life.”
Minnick says that by recounting his experiences with addiction and the dangers of gambling, over time he will have “a positive reason to talk about the issue more often and to keep more people accountable.” His recovery has been “mixed” between anonymous support groups and public posts online.
Gambling is exploding in the United States, and scholars, clinicians and activists have warned that more people are becoming problem sufferers, but gambling addiction is generally tolerated and dealt with behind closed doors.
Minnick is in the minority on TikTok, a platform filled with videos highlighting bettors’ potential advantages. victory But what are the real benefits to industry-leading companies? bet The downside for bettors who are big or in trouble.
These platforms are designed to grab attention: If a user watches most of a video, they’re sure to watch more of the same thing: synchronized dancing, advice on how to be “modest” in different situations, gambling, etc. One Drake video Win a seven-figure prize For example, roulette could soon see another one starting featuring influencers. Talk about winningand unique Claims to offer a “guarantee to make money”“
These rabbit holes help normalize gambling, which is still in its infancy as a legal activity in dozens of states, among a younger audience of teens and 20-somethings on social media, according to Minnick, who is now 25. While he creates posts about gambling addiction in an attempt to redress the balance, he has been troubled by the prevailing discussion, which he sees as falling into two distinct categories.
“First of all, gambling addiction is a joke,” Minnick said. “The scary thing is that gambling is profitable, and I think that’s what causes a lot of the problems. If you’re losing money at gambling, meaning you have a gambling addiction, it means you’re bad at gambling and you’re not getting over it.”
The latter perception has helped lay the groundwork for a mini-industry of influencers peddling gambling predictions and advice. “None of it really works,” Minnick says. “The people making money are make These are the chosen ones. sale “It’s a pick.”
in One In the post, Minnick listed 20 questions, seven of which if answered “yes” are considered a warning sign of gambling addiction. Some of the most common comments included, “I’m not addicted, I’m dedicated,” “I’ll bet you $20 I said ‘yes’ more times than you,” and “20/20 but big wins await.”
Minnick feels outnumbered. “I’m just a guy making videos from home,” he said, facing off against “production companies that are making amazing videos” and influencers touting their victories. He suggested it would be easier if A-list celebrities came forward to talk about their gambling struggles. “Right now, of course, it’s David versus Goliath. I don’t have any sides.”
Last year, Netflix PainkillersDrama Series The film is about Purdue Pharma, the former maker of the prescription painkiller OxyContin, and the company’s role in the opioid epidemic. For Minnick, the storyline was familiar.
At Purdue, Minnick said, the prevailing attitude was that “our drugs work well for most people who use them, and those who abuse them should be blamed; that’s their fault, not ours.” The gambling industry’s marketing about “responsible gambling,” and its focus on gamblers themselves, rather than the gambling platforms, acting responsibly, “is more or less the exact same thing, whether intentionally or not,” he concluded.
Minnick still thinks that such messaging is “just offensive to problem gamblers,” but he has softened his views somewhat. He said there are many people with “good intentions” who work in responsible gambling for betting companies, but “they don’t know how much help they can get before it becomes a profit problem.”
Minnick says messages encouraging responsible gambling are beneficial for 90 percent of gamblers, but he believes those messages are targeted and difficult to reach for the 10 percent of gamblers who are at risk of or already have a problem.
“Responsible gambling is great, but it’s not a skill that can be learned,” he said. “It’s something 90% of people are already doing, and it’s not something that actually benefits the industry.”
