Gambling on sporting events was once an activity done behind closed doors in smoky backrooms. Not many people talked about it or let others know they were wagering big money on professional sport.
Now it’s out in the open and spreading exponentially.
As gambling has become more popular, it’s evolved into a societally acceptable activity glorified on TV, podcasts, commercials and even being introduced to children on computer games and phone apps.
Online sports gambling has made placing wagers as easy as opening your phone and betting from the comfort of your own home or office. This trend is becoming increasingly popular with male college-age students ranging from 18 to 24 years old. Betting on sports has severe consequences as it can lead to financial problems, stress and can evolve into a gambling addiction in the future.
“I never thought I had a problem, let alone an addiction. I was gambling on sports for fun until it wasn’t fun anymore,” a 25-year-old, recovering gambling addict said. “I burned so many bridges, lost trust with family and friends and wasted thousands of dollars.”
The recovering sports gambling addict, who asked to not be named, began gambling his second year of college, occasionally placing small wagers on games. The frequency and size of bets kept growing.
“The turning point for me was when I gambled away around $9,000 that was meant to pay my college tuition, and lost every penny,” he said. “I had bookies sending me threats. I was scared and I panicked.”
The college student turned gambler found himself in a deep hole, he tried to fix it by taking out a loan. The addict then tried to make up for their losses and gambled the lone on a game that was sure to hit.
But it didn’t.
“This was the point I realized I had a serious problem and needed actual help. I was so mentally lost, stressed to the point I could not sleep or eat,” they said.
Situations like this are becoming more frequent as online sports gambling becomes easily accessible.
“It is a different form of gambling. I think it’s just another hidden layer that is getting exposed,” Las Vegas gambling counselor, Lori Flores said. “It’s different when you don’t have to go to a casino and you’re not in front of a machine with other people around. You can literally gamble anywhere now, and it’s going to create a lot of problems, especially with the growing number of college-age-gamblers we are seeing.”
Gambling once was only legal in just a few states, but with online gambling, bookies and websites are finding loopholes around it, giving access to anyone, anywhere in the world.
Off-shore websites make it easy to deposit money via Bitcoin and give untraceable access to betting money on sports and online casino games.
Flores has been a gambling counselor in Las Vegas for 14 years. “My clinic is seeing a lot more young male patients involved in online sports gambling, but there isn’t a lot of data around it because it’s so new, even for Las Vegas,” she said.
Walker Ward, who recently graduated from the University of Idaho, also gambles online, but doesn’t believe he has a problem – yet.
“I gamble to make sports games more interesting and try to win a little money,” he said. “I don’t see myself ever developing an addiction to gambling, but I have witnessed addiction be passed through generations, so I will need to be careful.”
Flores treats many patients with addiction in their families and knows firsthand how someone with addicts as family members can succumb to gambling.
“My mom was an alcoholic and I always knew I wouldn’t become her by having a traumatic childhood,” she said. “But at the same time, gambling snuck up on me, I didn’t even realize it could be an addiction because I wasn’t digesting anything. But the high it gave me during troubled times filled that hole until I got in a lot of trouble and realized how bad it really was. Then I got help.”
Getting help and admitting to having a gambling problem can be the hardest step because no one thinks they have a problem until it is too late. Flores believes education is an important step in helping the next generation realize the signs of a gambling problem.
“Young kids play games online that promote them to pay money to earn the next level or more coins and this is a form of gambling,” she said. “You see signs in school that say no to drugs but they need to start informing young kids that gambling can also lead to addiction. You will start to see more gambling-based programs out there soon.”
As the pandemic recedes and we return to “normal life,” data is likely to show a dangerous trend – an increase of online gambling and a rising number of addicts.
“People were stuck in their house, receiving money from the government,” Flores said. “I know a lot of my clients that switched to online gambling and it truly is dangerous.”
The trend is rising all around the world and can cause unnecessary stress, financial problems and addiction.
Brock Craven can be reached at