Public health advocates say to tap brakes on rapid expansion of online sports gambling
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Online gambling has quickly become America's newest addiction.
Experts say that more young men are getting hooked and ending up in over their heads. Now, KDKA Investigator Andy Sheehan talks to addiction specialists about what can be done to stop it from becoming worse.
The rise in sports betting in Pennsylvania has been coupled with a spike in calls for help from young men in their late teens, twenties and early thirties who've gotten in too deep, owing as much as $50 to $75 to $100,000 in bad bets.
"We're completely overloaded, but we don't want to turn anyone away," gambling addiction counselor Jody Bechtold said.
Bechtold has a practice with six other counselors, and they are all overbooked with young sports bettors, averaging 10 new referrals a week — young men drawn in by the accessibility of sportsbook apps as close as the phone in their pocket, with a seemingly unlimited number of betting options.
"It's a perfect storm," Bechtold said. "Your brain's not fully developed until you're 25. The prefrontal cortex of good decision-making and impulsivity is the last to develop in the brain. You put all that together and you put it on a super-accessible smartphone."
With sports betting now legal in 37 states, no one's proposing a return to its prohibition, but public health advocates would like to at least tap the brakes on its rapid expansion. Right now, there is no limiting free play options offered by the sportsbooks and no limits on in-game betting, which allows users to bet during the game on things like how many field goals or touchdowns will be scored in a given quarter.
"When people really start getting in trouble is when they start chasing their losses," college student Zach Harmar said. "You lose $10 here, and you bet $20 the next time and the next time you bet $50. That's when it really becomes an issue."
Public health advocates say in-game betting is one place to start.
"Perhaps, limits on the types of bets that can be placed during games, even placing bets during games," said Mark Gottlieb of the Public Health Advocacy Institute. "A whistle-to-whistle ban is something that's been talked about."
Other measures would ensure young people aren't gambling on credit. In Pennsylvania, users can set ceilings on how much they are willing to gamble or even self-exclude themselves from the sites. But unlike Pennsylvania, some states require sportsbook accounts to be tied to debit cards and not credit cards, so young users aren't gambling with money they don't have.
"When they're using multiple sources of income, multiple credit cards, starting to take loans out, borrowing from friends and co-workers, all of those are tell-tale signs that they've gone too far," Bechtold said.
There is currently no new legislation to protect young sports bettors or strengthen the safeguards against abuse.
So far, the state has benefited financially from sports betting. Last year, Pennsylvania brought in $165 million in revenue from sports betting.