As Americans bet billions on sports, society wrestles with rapid growth

Tyree Singleton admits to having a gambling addiction, but says that he can manage his habit. He says he started out playing roulette but his heart led him to sports betting.

“I’m arrogantly confident in my sports knowledge in many different sports, so I feel like whatever bet I’m going to make I’m making to win,” he says, checking the FanDuel app on his phone from the comfort of his apartment living room in Philadelphia, where he is watching what else: sports.

As the Denver Nuggets finished off the Miami Heat in Game 5 of the NBA Finals to win the team’s first championship in franchise history, he wasn’t celebrating the win. He’d lost money thinking that Miami could win the series. It was a long shot, so he wasn’t upset about losing. And he didn’t care about the Finals MVP – Nikola Jokić’s impressive closeout performance of 28 points with 16 rebounds and four assists. He lamented that in the closing minutes, Jimmy Butler of the Heat made two 3-pointers – he bet Mr. Butler wouldn’t. He lost a chance to turn a $7 bet into $69.

Small $7 bets don’t seem like much, but when you place multiple bets a day on multiple sports, via a tap on your phone, it adds up quickly.

“Every day that I don’t bet is a missed opportunity. I don’t look at it as I’m saving money. I think that there’s a bet out there that’s guaranteed; I should take advantage of this. I’m leaving money on the table,” Mr. Singleton says. He has made $1 parlay bets, or multiple wagers, that have left him flush with four-digit wins.

Mr. Singleton is one of a growing number of Americans placing sports bets, both in person and online. Sports betting is now legal in 38 states and the District of Columbia, helped along by a 2018 Supreme Court decision that struck down a previous sports betting ban. Sports wagers generated a record $31.11 billion in the first quarter of 2023, reports the American Gaming Association, delivering a record revenue to the industry of $2.79 billion – a 70.1% increase over the first quarter of 2022. 

With that level of increase – and an estimated 7 million adults dealing with a gambling addiction, according to the National Council on Problem Gambling – comes more debate about regulation and the activity’s long-term effects on society. 

“In and of itself, I don’t think it’s a problem. I think there are things connected to sports betting that make it more likely that some people will develop problems,” says Lia Nower, director of the Center for Gambling Studies at Rutgers University School of Social Work.

Research shows new bettors are young and mostly male, Dr. Nower says. Almost 90% of sports wagering is done online, she says, and there is no way for operators to police when underage kids are using a relative’s or older friend’s account with permission.  

Because gambling is so glamorized in society, most people don’t think that they can develop serious consequences from it, she adds. Her fear is that the generation growing up now won’t see sports as entertainment, but will only associate athletic competition with betting. Her biggest pet peeve: lack of government oversight. 

“The federal government is making millions of dollars off this, too,” she says. “Gambling winnings are taxable, so it’s not like the federal government is not benefiting. They’re just not doing anything to help people.”

She suggests establishing and funding an office of problem gambling, noting that there is no federal money being put toward this now. 

According to the American Gaming Association, since 2018 Americans have wagered $220 billion legally on sports betting. That has generated $3.7 billion in federal and state taxes. The state portion, about $3.1 billion, has helped fund things such as health care, education, and infrastructure, as well as problem gambling resource funding. The association released research in 2023 suggesting that 85% of American adults agree with the Supreme Court’s decision on loosening betting rules, and 77% support sports betting being legal in their state. A Pew survey from last year found that 57% of American adults say sports betting is neither a good nor bad thing for society. 

An eye on advertising 

The Supreme Court’s 2018 decision, which ruled the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) unconstitutional, put oversight in states’ hands. States allocate money toward setting gambling standards in person and online, checking sportsbook providers, and offer education and protections for consumers. The power to oversee gambling needs to stay at a state level, says Casey Clark, senior vice president of the American Gaming Association.

“If you look at what PASPA did when it was in place for 25 years, it’s pretty clear that the federal government trying to oversee sports betting was an abject failure, except for perpetuating and growing a massive illegal marketplace that was done by these offshore websites or corner bookies. And often illicit activity is tied to other illicit activity,” Mr. Clark says. In total there are 5,000 regulators in states across the country committed to monitoring gambling, he says.

States will work together and tweak their response as time goes on, he says, noting that some states, like Utah, will flat-out not allow sports betting. Other states have thought about banning or limiting gambling advertisements, including flashy commercials with celebrities espousing the benefits of placing bets online and through apps. 

Mr. Clark says that his group believes that such bans would violate the First Amendment. Even so, one U.S. congressman, Paul Tonko, a Democrat from New York, is forging ahead. He introduced the Betting on Our Future Act in February, which would ban all sportsbook advertising – which he says has “run rampant” after the 2018 high court decision – on the internet, TV, and radio. So far, it hasn’t gotten much traction.

“I am pursuing this legislation to start a conversation in Congress about the real harms associated with disordered gambling, and the threat that constant deceptive advertising imposes on millions of vulnerable Americans,” Representative Tonko writes via email.

Promotion of a known harmful product is no different than the heyday of tobacco advertising, he says, when cigarette companies created catchy slogans and sponsored television shows. “That’s why the inspiration for the text of this bill comes directly from the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act, which banned tobacco advertising in 1969,” he adds.

Mr. Tonko says alarm bells went off when he learned that there are colleges and universities signing million-dollar deals with entities such as Caesars Sportsbook to bring betting to campus. The potential effects on young people, and research that shows a relationship between gambling product ads and increased gambling activity, inspired him.

Advertising is useful because it helps gamblers know what the legal sportsbooks are, Mr. Clark of the American Gaming Association counters. “It’s the primary way that we market responsible gambling content, tools, and problem gambling resources,” he says. “Everything that we put out has content on how people can get help if they need it, and I think restricting that kind of advertising is just going to put up a barrier to support for anybody who might need it.”

Efforts to help 

Other countries have already started exploring safeguards, including limits on advertising. Australia, for example, bans sports betting advertising on TV from 5 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. and during live games. In the United Kingdom, where online betting started in 2005, the government reports that more than 400 deaths by suicide a year are linked to gambling. The government has opened gambling clinics for children because 55,000 of almost 400,000 problem gamblers were between the ages of 11 and 16. 

A difference between what has happened in the U.K. and the U.S. is how the systems were built, Mr. Clark says. Yes, the U.K. is implementing safeguards now, he notes, but it is retrofitting its system since sports betting has been legal for many years there. That’s in contrast with the American market, which is new and has protective infrastructure built into it from the inception. 

That infrastructure includes the American Gaming Association issuing a marketing code in 2019, after the high court ruling. The AGA updated its Responsible Marketing Code for Sports Wagering in March, adding protections for college-age students and athletes, and banning the term “risk free” in advertising.

In medical terms, gambling disorder is the only behavioral addiction formally recognized by the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. 

“It feels identical to a hit of heroin or a hit of cocaine,” says Timothy Fong, a psychiatrist at the University of California, Los Angeles and co-director of the school’s Gambling Studies Program.

Dr. Fong says that because sports betting has experienced rapid expansion in five years, natural questions arise about the possible damage that it’s doing versus the benefits that society gets from it. He acknowledges that increased revenue is a positive, and so are diminished criminal elements around illegal gambling, but that the flip side can be increased risk of addiction for people who are already vulnerable biologically and psychologically, or even worse, the introduction of gambling addictions to new people.

He emphasizes that gambling addictions can be treated with therapies, medication, and support groups. Stopping cold turkey is unlikely, he says.

Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling, says 1-800-GAMBLER, a national hotline for people seeking help, gets a text, chat, or call every 90 seconds. All those people are referred to treatment specialists in their area. 

“If you stick with the self-help group, if you stick with therapy, if it’s available, roughly two-thirds of people [who] try to get help succeed,” he says.

Mr. Whyte says the National Council on Problem Gambling isn’t pro- or anti-regulation, but is in favor of federal dollars being allocated to treat gambling addiction. Legislation addressing this is going to be introduced by Rep. Claudia Tenney, a Republican from New York, and will be called The GRIT (Gambling addiction Recovery, Investment, and Treatment) Act. It would set aside half of federal sports excise tax revenue and dedicate it to problem gambling treatment and research.

“I got it!”

Back in Philadelphia, losing money on the NBA Finals didn’t dull Mr. Singleton’s mood. While the Nuggets are celebrating at their trophy presentation, he clicks FanDuel open on his phone, smiles, and quickly switches the TV channel to baseball.

“I got it!” he exclaims.

The Philadelphia Phillies have just lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks, with a final score of 9-8. The $100 wager he made on Diamondbacks left fielder Corbin Carroll to get two hits for his three times at bat has come back as a $350 win for him. It is a Monday night, the beginning of a new week of gambling for him, off the back of an $800 tally the week before. He bought himself a new Google watch for $400 as a present.

He is childless, lives alone, and is gainfully employed, he says. He has never ruined a relationship from gambling and has never asked people for money to support his habit. He loses money and loses sleep because of it sometimes. He wins big and pays his rent and buys material items at times, but ultimately, he says he isn’t hurting anyone by gambling.

“I would need some real circumstances to stop, because I don’t plan to.”