Sports Betting Ads Pushing Gambling Addiction Numbers (free issue)
Mostly young men are affected
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I’m back! The nasty sinus infection has been banished (well almost).* Thank you to everyone who checked in. And now for today’s rant.
For the past few months, I’ve been seeing more ads on TV and on the internet for online sports betting than I’ve ever seen before. In Canada, the ads are coming to Montreal from Ontario, featuring sports heroes like Wayne Gretzky. From the U.S., they’re featuring two popular online gambling sites, featuring stars like John Cena and Kevin Hart. I’m a big John Cena fan – he seems to be a really nice guy. But when I saw in him an ad that promotes gambling, my heart sank. John – that was a really bad decision.
I even see promotions when I’m on the rowing machine at the gym. During my workout, I face a TV that shows a mainstream sports channel. Much of what I see is sponsored by one of the two biggest online gambling companies. With Super Bowl Sunday on the horizon, the ads are coming even faster than they have before. It’s expected that a record 50 million people in the U.S. will be betting a collective total of $16 billion dollars on the game. That’s 20% of American adults! And $16 billion dollars is around the GDP of each Mongolia, Brunei, Laos, and Nicaragua.
They can now gamble in their bed, at work, or at the park as they watch their children play.
Gambling addiction has always existed. Families have been torn apart and lives have been destroyed as people gambled away life savings, college funds, and money they don’t have. For the most part though, those who gambled had to seek out the games. Now, they’re not just coming to them, they’re coming to them wherever they are, 24/7, through their smart phones. People can now gamble in their bed, at work, or at the park as they watch their children play. They can gamble any time, anywhere.
Some legal gambling entities do claim to offer help to those who are addicted to gambing, although in my opinion, it’s just window dressing. Here in Quebec, you can put yourself on a self-exclusion list for both in-person casinos and for Quebec-run online gaming sites. But that doesn’t stop people from other types of gambling. And now that it’s so invasive, it will be worse.
Gambling disorder: a real diagnosis
According to the American Psychiatric Association, “[g]ambling disorder involves repeated, problem gambling behavior. The behavior leads to problems for the individual, families, and society. Adults and adolescents with gambling disorder have trouble controlling their gambling. They will continue even when it causes significant problems.”
Like many addictions, gambling disorder can run in families and can begin as early as adolescence.
It may seem odd to some people that gambling can be put in the same category as drugs and alcohol. After all, you’re not putting something in your body that changes your chemical balance, right? Technically, that’s true. But you don’t need to put something inside your body for changes to occur. The act of gambling and the risk of winning versus losing releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter that some call the feel-good chemical.
Like many addictions, gambling disorder can run in families and can begin as early as adolescence.
This is how the Cleveland Clinic describes why dopamine can make you feel happy:
“Dopamine is part of your reward system. This system is designed, from an evolutionary standpoint, to reward you when you’re doing the things you need to do to survive — eat, drink, compete to survive and reproduce. As humans, our brains are hard-wired to seek out behaviors that release dopamine in our reward system. When you’re doing something pleasurable, your brain releases a large amount of dopamine. You feel good and you seek more of that feeling.”
A high dopamine level may make you feel energized and euphoric – but it has downsides too. That same high level can make it hard to sleep, cause you to have poor impulse control, and be more aggressive than usual. Sounds like someone who is addicted to something, doesn’t it?
There is a difference between ingested substances and gambling though. According to Dr. Timothy W. Fong, who was quoted in an article on the UCLA health site:
“Gambling, unlike any other addiction, is associated with cognitive distortions…People say, ‘If I keep gambling then eventually I’ll win.’ You don’t say that about alcohol, tobacco or cocaine.” He continues to say that the cognitive distortion is related to large losses (money or assets). Whether it’s pride, ego, or despair, the gamblers are driven to continue to gamble, so they can try to make up those losses.
Why bring this up now then?
Commercial sports betting was illegal in the U.S. until 2018, when the prohibition was struck down by the Supreme Court. Since then, 38 states plus the District of Columbia have legalized it. Sports betting in Canada is a bit more complicated, but it has been legal through provincial lottery boards for a while now.
Do an online search about the topic and you’ll see many stories of people who are compulsive gamblers. They all say the same thing: online sports betting will make it worse for so many more people. Some experts compare online sports betting to slot machines because they give instant results. Slot machines are considered the most addictive of games and are often designed exactly to produce the addictive behaviors. According to a gambling counsellor quoted in a 2022 CBC article, “Sports gambling has evolved to become much like slot machines… People can now bet on minute details of a game, not just its results, giving people that same constant source of gambling as when they play the slots… You can bet online, 24 hours a day, on multiple different types of sports.”
And the demographics are changing. I was watching a segment on online gambling on the CBS news show 60 Minutes on Sunday. Their expert, a gambling addict himself who hasn’t gambled for several years, said that most people using the online gambling apps are young men, up to about 35. Many are just starting adult life. The expert said that some gambled away their tuition loans, others lost their inheritances.
A Time magazine article from last year refers to a study that says 1 in 10 college students is a pathological gambler. But when I checked out the study they refer to, it was published in 2013 and based on numbers from 2005 to 2013. I’d guess that the number could be a good bit higher now.
So what do we do?
I understand the power of gambling. I’ve been to the Montreal casino a few times, and I went to Las Vegas many years ago for a few days. Of course, while there, we visited the casino attached to our hotel. I could see how I had to be very careful about how much money I allowed myself to use. And I could feel the temptation to increase that – and it was a hard temptation not to give in to once in a while.
Personally, I’d like to see those online gambling sites shut down. But that’s not realistic. So I don’t have an answer. That said, I do believe that celebrities shouldn’t be allowed to shill for the gambling sites. They add an appeal, especially to the younger adults and teens. We can’t glamorize – or further glamorize – the gambling life.
What do you think? Leave your comment below. Let’s get a conversation going.
*I wanted to send a shout-out to the telemedicine physician who counseled me on watching for signs of sepsis. She never mentioned the word sepsis, but she did finish our consultation by advising me to watch for signs of fever, change in mental status, increase in pain, etc. If I experienced any of those, I should go to an emergency department. This is the first time (that I can recall) that a physician told me this when I was getting an antibiotic. I do remember the pediatricians saying that for my children, but never for me. To learn about sepsis, please visit Sepsis.org. It could save your life.
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