Gambling addiction has brought Saul Malek highs and lows. As a college sophomore, he incurred significant debts to settle lost bets.
The 25-year-old Southern Methodist University graduate student counsels other recovering gamblers.
He worries about young guys like him if Texas legalizes sports betting.
“I don’t think anyone that’s actually in gambling can fully grasp the scale of the damage,” he added.
Mobile sports betting is on the agenda for a third parliamentary session. Mobile sports gambling laws aim to make Texas one of 33 states that allow phone bets.
Gambling addiction comes with the money it brings the state.
Sports betting has long targeted Texas, with 30 million people. If sports betting is allowed, lobbyists say politicians could collect $250 million in taxes. Projections may fail. Researchers think gambling addiction, especially among young individuals, will grow.
“It’s a wildfire,” said Miami (Ohio) University assistant professor Matthew McMurray. “Everyone in the industry that analyzes these things saw it coming.”
Based on evidence suggesting 2% of Americans acquire gambling addictions, Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Compulsive Gambling, predicts 600,000 Texas might become addicted.
Two powerful Republicans, Rep. Jeff Leach of Plano and Sen. Lois Kolkhorst of Brenham, are sponsoring the sports betting measures, which may improve their chances. Texas Governor Greg Abbott and House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, support gaming expansion. Both oppose slot machines in petrol stations and convenience shops.
Several sports betting bills aim to dissuade addicts. The legislation would ban advertising to under-21s, provide a percentage of tax income to a problem gambling fund, and create a self-exclusion list to prevent recovering addicts or those at risk of excessive gambling from accessing digital sports betting applications.
Nonetheless, the legislation enable credit card funding of gaming accounts, which other jurisdictions have banned.
“We can detect if someone is starting to have a gambling issue if they start using more and more credit cards, or more and more bank accounts and they are shifting between them,” said Rutgers University professor and Center for Gambling Studies director Lia Nower.
Nower suggested restricting account funding to debit cards and checking accounts.
“Then individuals are only gambling with money they can afford to lose—and they may not even be able to lose that,” she added.
High-risk young males
Malek lost over $20,000 gaming. He joined fantasy sports leagues in middle school. As a college student, he wasted thousands of dollars a month trying to recover his losses.
“I was wagering all this money that I didn’t have,” Malek said in a phone interview.
Winning bets gave a rush of control and power.
“I felt a strength that’s extremely hard to conceptualize,” he remarked. “Winning money helped me feel cool and superior than my peers.”
Malek is under 30 for a reason. Researchers think gambling addiction is more common in men. Sports betting puts young men at danger, according to study.
Devin Mills, an assistant professor at Texas Tech’s School of Community, Family, and Addiction Sciences, said the prefrontal cortex, which makes decisions, doesn’t fully develop until the mid-to-late 20s.
Texas would authorize sports betting for 21-year-olds. Several states decrease the age to 18.
“Now, it seems cruel to our university kids, but strictly speaking, they do behave a little bit more on impulse than those five or six years older,” Mills said.
Sportsbooks know their customers. Sports betting advertisers spend hundreds of millions on young individuals. The New York Times claimed that FanDuel and DraftKings had signed campus advertising partnerships with many institutions.
Public gamblers like Barstool’s Dave Portnoy and Jake Paul, who have cult followings for their bets. Portnoy, who has a history of misogyny, racism, and sexual assault, publishes weekly videos on Twitter to his 2.8 million followers of his responses to games with thousands of dollars at stake.
Portnoy frequently photographs his thousands-dollar gamble. Houston furniture shop owner James “Mattress Mack” McIngvale lost millions in individual bets. He lost $3 million betting TCU will beat Georgia in the College Football Playoff final game earlier this year.
Whyte said certain depictions are unrealistic and irresponsible. “Those unfamiliar with sports betting may think victories happen all the time.”
Texas sports betting bill sponsors know about addiction. Leach said the measure is OK as is. Kolkhorst said she would change the law and that addiction is one of her “greatest concerns.”
“This bill can affect anything,” she remarked.
‘A light switched off
March Madness begins this week, kicking off a month of office pools, blown brackets, and billions of dollars in wagers. Recovering gamblers will also be bombarded by advertisements.
In Ohio, which launched mobile sports betting in January, Miami University professor McMurray noted how all airwaves—television, and radio—were oversaturated with promotional possibilities.
“It was like a light switch turned off and everywhere you walked, the only advertising that you saw was sports betting,” he added.
According to Media Radar, the gaming sector spent about $500 million on advertising from November 2020 to November 2021. In Texas, promotional bets and offers are authorized and not taxed.
Related:Las Vegas Sands donates millions, hires dozens of lobbyists before gaming push
Promotional bets, such as “risk-free” bets that repay losses, assist the sports betting sector attract customers who may be hesitant to invest money.
Nonetheless, the return is frequently a credit for more bets.
“You’re saying ‘risk-free’ in the sense that it’s not your money, but you’re still putting up something of value, in this instance virtual money,” said Dr. Timothy Fong, co-director of the University of California, Los Angeles Gambling Studies program. “I think the gaming industry should control these types of enticements better.”
FanDuel and DraftKings have also negotiated arrangements with sports leagues or commentators to boost bets during national broadcasts viewed by millions. Before the 2020-21 season, NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley announced a contract with FanDuel to promote the game as part of his predictions.