College Student Says Sports Betting Is ‘Wrecking My Friends’ Lives’

Published: March 12, 2026

phone, screen — Photo by Sayo Garcia on Unsplash

By Michaela Gordoni

WSJ writer Eli Thompson has seen first hand how sports betting ruins young men.

He recalled seeing “One of my football teammates…furiously tapping buttons on his phone. What was he doing?”

He explained, “It turned out he was placing a $200 wager on an NBA game that night. As an 18-year-old, he uses his own debit card to regularly place bets — and he’s not the only one. On my campus, especially among many of my teammates, guys have become obsessed with online sports betting, sometimes spiraling into debt.”

Many of his high school friends had also been addicted to sports gambling, but now it was worse. He’s seen friends lie to their friends and family, lose lots of money and pull away from others.

One of his friends betted all the money from his part-time job. Then, he used a family member’s linked account without their knowledge. Other friends have used credit cards, and one had to sell his belongings to make up $500 he lost.

“One guy who used to be the life of our group chat went quiet as he got caught up in tracking his bets. Others struggle with academic classes, staying up late glued to the apps and skipping homework,” Thompson recalled.

Young men are vulnerable to influence from their idols and struggle with understanding consequences to lost bets.

View this post on Instagram

Thompson says one of his friends saw a Draftkings ad during an NBA match and said, “It must be OK if Kevin Hart is doing it.”

Counselors report a growing number of patients addicted to gambling, and internet searches for gambling addiction have spiked, The Harvard Gazette reported.

“When new forms of gambling appear, the rate of savings go down, then you see the rate of credit card defaults going up. And you see the rate of mortgage defaults going up. So these are long-term financial and societal costs with broad implications,” said Malcolm Sparrow, professor of the practice of public management at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

“We suspect up to 50 percent of gamblers suffer some degree of harm and regret, and a much broader definition say it’s having an adverse effect on their life, and they’ve tried to stop but can’t,” Sparrow said. “Now that’s not enough to get you designated as a problem gambler, but it still means it’s having a lasting detrimental effect in one dimension of life or another.”

A recent Pew research survey found that 43% of Americans view sports betting as bad for society, while 50% say it’s neither good nor bad. Almost a quarter (22%) of adults say they’ve bet money on sports in 2025. Three years ago, that number was 19%.

Thompson believes parents and schools should address gambling just as they do other addictions — like drugs and alcohol.

Thompson said, in a nutshell, “Sports betting isn’t just harmless fun; it’s about guys my age risking their futures, one bet at a time.”

Questions or comments? Please write to us here.