By India McCarty
Sports betting is at an all-time high in America, and experts are warning against addiction.
“Games have been carved up into thousands of betting opportunities within the game,” Danny Funt, author of Everybody Loses: The Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Gambling, told CBN.
In his book, Funt traces the industry’s growth, exploring the 2018 Supreme Court ruling that cleared the way for legalized sports betting. Today, gambling on sports is legal in 39 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.
He explained that many sports leagues stopped their opposition to sports betting when they saw how their viewer demographics were changing.
“They saw that audience aging,” Funt said. “Younger people are not as interested in sitting through a full game, and people are canceling cable subscriptions. To protect their most valuable asset, TV rights, gambling seems like a powerful antidote to those trends.”
Related: Why This Finance Expert Warns Against ‘Addictive,’ ‘Evil’ Sports Betting Apps
While sports gambling is now extremely popular, many have warned against the dangers of gambling addiction.
“That’s what keeps me up at night,” Mike Sciandra, executive director of the Nebraska Council on Problem Gambling, told CBN. “This problem is going to skew younger and younger. I have an 18-year-old daughter, and I see it among her and her friends.”
Surveys already show that young people are getting into sports betting. A recent study found “36% of boys age 11 to 17 report gambling in the past year, rising significantly from 32% of boys age 11 to 49% of those age 17.”
Gambling addiction treatment centers are even reporting a rise in teenage boys and young men seeking help.
“When I started, most of the clients in the treatment program were probably in their 40s, 50s, 60s. Lottery, casino players, that sort of thing. And in the past few years, it’s just gotten really young,” Elizabeth Thielen, senior director at Nicasa Behavioral Health Services, a treatment center in Illinois, told NBC. “I had one parent who called whose child went through almost their entire college fund.”
Sciandra, who overcame his own gambling addiction as a young man, is committed to helping others avoid falling into the trap of sports betting and other gambling.
“If I can help youth and young adults and those currently struggling, there’s no better feeling on Earth,” he said. “That has completely replaced my desire to bet.”
As sports betting continues to attract a younger and younger audience, parents must be on guard, making sure that their children understand the serious consequences of gambling.
Read Next: People Seek Help for Gambling Addiction Following Normalization of Sports Betting
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