A 26-year-old man with a gambling addiction started having problems in high school and switched to a flip phone. He was released from the app that facilitated sports betting.
In the throes of addiction, Joe Rusillo was spending his weekly paycheck gambling. He gambled late at night and at his family gatherings, deleting apps one day and reinstalling them the next.
“I'll bet on anything, anytime, anywhere,” he said.
Lucillo is not alone in his struggle with sports gambling addiction.After the war, the number of young gambling addicts has increased rapidly. The Supreme Court paved the way. Sports betting was legalized in 2018.
Gamblers are overwhelmingly young men
The majority of online bettors are young men, and nearly half feel they bet more than they should, according to a new Siena College poll.
To date, 38 states and Washington, D.C. have legalized sports betting. In the five years since New Jersey legalized online sports gambling, he said, calls to the state's problem gambling helpline have nearly tripled. Largest caller demographic: 25-34 years old.
Gambling addiction therapist Harry Levant said today's desperate gamblers look and act different than those of decades ago. Among his patients are college students who gambled away their federal student loans. He says some people have used up their inheritance through gambling.
“We have patients who gamble in the shower. We have patients who gamble before they get out of bed in the morning. We have patients who gamble while driving. There are no guardrails,” Levant said.
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Rusillo said he believes sports betting is gaining more attention than ever among young people.
“Sportsbooks and commercials and the leagues themselves make it look very cool to gamble and risk money,” Rusillo said.
man vs machine
Equipped with artificial intelligence, data, and engineering, gambling companies entice fans to place snap bets not just on the game, but on every play within the game.
The initial effect was to generate billions of dollars in revenue for gambling companies, leagues and state governments through new tax streams.
The opportunities for action within these sports betting apps are endless. Live in-game microbetting allows users to bet on every pitch, serve, and snap. Using AI-powered algorithms, sportsbooks like DraftKings and FanDuel constantly update their odds. The average fan cannot calculate whether it is a good or bad bet, much less in real time.
Levant pointed to DraftKings' betting options Sunday, pointing to a tennis qualifying match in Charlottesville. He said the sportsbook is not planning bets on lesser-known players for fans of the tennis qualifiers in Charlottesville.
“It's designed for people who want more action,” Levant said.
Levant considers the acceptance of online sports gambling a public health emergency.
“They have a lot of information about you.”
Like Levant, Matt Zarb-Cousin, a recovering gambling addict turned activist, has successfully lobbied for stricter gambling laws in the UK, where gambling has been legal for decades.
Recently, Zarb-Cousin was able to use the UK's public information laws to access data that Flutter, the betting company that owns FanDuel, had collected about one of its customers. That data was used to tailor offers and push notifications to keep customers engaged.
“There were about 93 different data points. [had gathered] These data points include information about when customers bet, how much they bet, which marketing leads worked, and more.
“It's not a fair bet,” Zarb-Cousin said. “They have a lot of information about you.”
He said he has no doubt that Flutter has enough information to identify problem gamblers.
Flutter said the company is taking steps to protect so-called “vulnerable customers,” in some cases even banning them entirely. The two largest U.S. sportsbooks, DraftKings and FanDuel, have said similar things, but declined to provide specific examples. 60 Minutes was scheduled to speak with DraftKings, but the company abruptly canceled the scheduled on-camera interview.
Bill Miller, president of the American Gaming Association, the gambling industry's main trade group, said he is skeptical that gambling addiction has increased since the Supreme Court opened the door to legalization in 2018. Ta.
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“I don't think there is an addiction to mobile betting any more than there is an addiction to using cell phones for other reasons,” Miller said in an interview.
He argued that the increased rate of problem gambling could be due to the fact that the industry itself frequently issues warnings to gamblers who are at risk.
“None of the illegal industries reported it,” Miller said.
Waging the fight against mobile gambling addiction
Miller acknowledged that sportsbooks are looking at betting patterns on their platforms to spot problem gamblers, but that a uniform industry-wide policy on that is still being developed. He said the gambling industry needs to ensure people have the resources they need to reduce the risk of addiction.
But while sportsbooks often recommend the decidedly old-fashioned solution of 1-800 to gamblers looking to quit gambling, Harry Levant believes this approach is inappropriate.
“The entire burden is placed on the individual,” Levant said. “It's a mistake to use artificial intelligence to deliver addictive products like gambling and microbetting at light speed and then tell people, 'But now please use responsibly.'”
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Recently, Levant partnered with Dick Daynard, a Northeastern University law professor who designed the first major lawsuit against a major tobacco company, and Mark Gottlieb, a Northeastern University public interest attorney. In December, the Northeastern team filed the first in a series of lawsuits accusing DraftKings in Massachusetts of false advertising, claiming that DraftKings “does not consent.”
The Northeast team is also lobbying Congress to enact federal regulations. They say the current patchwork of state-by-state policies simply isn't working.
“It's sometimes described as the Wild West because there are so few regulations,” Gottlieb said.
