Statistics from the American Gaming Association, a group that puts out researched data about the gambling industry, reported that 2023 had a 46% increase in sports betting revenue from the previous year, and in November 2024, sports betting had a 10.9% hold percentage which was significantly up from last year’s 6.4%, therefore having a large impact on the revenue. These spiking numbers have a correlation to the relatively recent legalization of sports betting in many states, but also to the shocking rise of online sports betting apps.
Only requiring the user to tap their phone screen a couple times to participate, online sports betting apps now make gambling easier and more accessible than it ever has been, and it is evident that the masses are taking advantage of that. Aaron Schuller (‘23), a Southwest graduate who has experience in online sports betting, shared how far-reaching this issue is in our own community. “I think most of my friends gamble, I could probably list like 30.”
Advertisements from various sports betting apps have skyrocketed this problem to concerning heights. All major American sports leagues have partnerships with betting platforms like BetMGM, DraftKings, and FanDuel, which results in an avalanche of advertisements being thrown at you at every interval. Not only that, but the ads feature some familiar faces, including big names like Nicki Minaj, Rob Gronkowski, and Snoop Dogg, which only serve to manipulate people further into downloading an app and placing their first bet.
It would seem as though all of this is beneficial, considering the fact that it boosts the economy by creating new jobs, and provides funding for infrastructure and state services from the revenue. So why is this something that society needs to be concerned about? The answer to that question is simple: gambling addiction.
In a May 2024 Forbes article, it mentions that multiple surveys report an escalated frequency of gambling disorders since 2018, the year in which sports betting was legalized in many states. Also according to Forbes, 2.5 million Americans currently have severe gambling addictions and 4 to 6 million have mild or moderate problems. It is an issue that plagues a multitude of the population and can often have disastrous consequences.
Gregory Strong, an English teacher at Southwest believes that “America’s youth are flushing their futures down the toilet with sports gambling.” Gambling addictions can cause serious financial problems and debt if someone gambles past their means, and can sometimes lead to committing crimes like theft or borrowing money that they have no way to pay back. Furthermore, as detailed in a 2022 National Institutes of Health paper, between 17 to 39 percent of people that suffer from gambling problems have experienced suicide ideation, so this issue poses a worrying threat to the lives of those who struggle with it.
In response to the question of whether or not he thinks the rise in sports betting is a negative, Schuller says, “…it definitely is a negative that more people are getting into betting. It’s rare that people actually make a significant amount of money and I think most people end up losing.” Sports betting is a win for the apps and the sports leagues, but it’s a loss for the consumer.
“Last year a student claimed he lost $500 in a bet about a football game,” Lorelei Soli, a math teacher at Southwest anecdotes. Another example of this problem hitting close to home, it also displays the reality of sports betting. A lot of money can be lost in a very short amount of time. However, if someone was absolutely set on picking up betting as a hobby, Soli has some advice on how to be smartest about it. “Skills to have: probability [and] experimental probability.”
A strategy that sports betting platforms often employ to encourage the continued usage of the app and elicit users to pour more money into it is the myriad of deals that the platforms offer. An example from the FanDuel app: “Bet $5 to receive a $200 Bonus Bet!” means that if a user uses FanDuel for the first time and bets $5, they will get $200 more to bet. However, these Bonus Bets unsurprisingly have some strings attached.
The conditions of the bonuses include varied ability based on the state the user is in, playthrough requirements, minimum levels of risk that the bet can be placed at, expiration dates, and restrictions on which sports and betting markets the bet can be placed in. Playthrough requirements are the number of times the amount of the bonus has to be wagered before a user can win anything. An example is that if there is a 3x rate on the previously mentioned $200 bonus, they would have to wager $600 in bets before withdrawing winnings.
The rules are put in place to avoid someone using the bonus and then deleting the app, and they are detailed in the terms and conditions of the bonus, but it would be untruthful to say they don’t seem shady. They give out a bonus that seems too good to be true, keep the specifications in the fine print, and make sure that users stay around and get hooked on gambling so that they can get their revenue. It is all at the expense of the ordinary, working class Americans that might now develop damaging gambling addictions as a result of the sneaky tactics employed by large corporations.
