A bad bet? The dangers of sports gambling addiction

CBS News

30-03-2025

There they were, in June of 1990, some of the grand pooh-bahs of professional sports, testifying before a Senate subcommittee on the dangers of legalized gambling. Among them: Paul Tagliabue, who was commissioner of the National Football League, who said, "Nothing has done more to despoil the games Americans play and watch than widespread gambling on them."
Here's how Tagliabue summed up his mission before the committee: "It's to protect the integrity and the character of our games."
Legalized gambling and professional sports were once regarded as a deadly combination to be avoided at all costs. But that was then …
This is now: Jamie Foxx, Wayne Gretzky, Eli and Peyton Manning and Garth Brooks are just some of the many superstars promoting sports betting. It all changed with
a 2018 Supreme Court decision
moving what was once largely limited to Las Vegas directly to the phone in your pocket.
So far, 39 states and Washington, D.C., have legalized sports gambling.
These few days of March Madness are expected to produce more than $3 billion in wagers. The NCAA is sufficiently concerned about player safety that it's taken out ads warning losing gamblers not to harass the players. That's because you can now bet on essentially anything that may happen on the court at the men's and women's basketball tournaments.
"We now have accessible, on every phone, computer and tablet, betting on every single micro-event in every sporting event conceivable," said Harry Levant, who has been warning about what he sees as a growing public health crisis.
At a Congressional hearing, Levant said, "Online sports gambling is a fundamentally different and more dangerous product than ever could have been imagined."
Levant described to us what online gambling constitutes today: "Before we sat down to do this interview, I looked on my phone, you can bet on ping pong from the Czech Republic on an average Wednesday morning," he said.
And you can place bets not just on game outcomes but also on what he called "micro-events," such as the result of each point in a ping pong contest between two players no one's ever heard of. "That's what younger and younger people are betting on," he said.
Levant learned his lessons the hard way. He's a recovering gambling addict. "Gambling addiction took my mind, my soul, body, and conscience," he told Congress.
Levant is a disbarred lawyer, who had been stealing from his clients to cover his gambling debts. He caught a break with a sympathetic judge who – recognizing his addiction – placed him on probation for eight years, ordered him to continue treatment, and told Levant, "This doesn't have to be the end. You can do something with this one day."
He is now a licensed therapist treating other gambling addicts. It's an expanding universe, he says. Close to $150 billion worth of legal sports bets were placed last year alone.
The industry's best customers are young men.
A Sienna College Research Institute poll
shows that almost half of men between 18 and 49 have an active online sports betting account.
Which raises the question: in theory, you have to be age 21 to place bets.
Andrew, Shaun and Brian – no last names here – are recovering gambling addicts in treatment with Harry Levant. "I know a lot of people that are under the age of 18," said Andrew. "They're 16, 15, and they're openly in school talking about all the wagers they got."
They use personal information from parents or an older sibling. "Usually it's a Social Security number," said Andrew. "It might be a driver's license. And then they're taking on that identity."
A lot of underage betting is happening on illegal or unregulated sites, but the legal sites haven't solved the problem, either.
And gambling addiction at any age, as Shaun recalls, can be devastating. At one point he was reduced to sleeping in his car. "When I was in the teeth of it, it's all that mattered. My marriage didn't matter. My job didn't matter. My daughters didn't matter. Gambling was the only thing that mattered," he said.
Winning was nice; losing, less so. But what counted was the action – live betting online, anytime, anywhere. One ad promotes wagering that is "automatic, algorithmic, powered by machine learning and AI."
According to Bryan, "There's always something to bet on. I found out some cricket matches are three days, because I bet on one, and then I was waiting for it to end!"
"I had my phone in the shower multiple times," said Shaun.
Andrew said, "I got a waterproof case on my phone, just so I could gamble in the shower!"
Shaun said, "With the live betting, there's no casual person betting on every play; that's where I go that it's catered to the gambling addict."
What all three men describe is an addiction every bit as all-consuming as drug addiction, and even more consequential.
According to the American Psychiatric Association
, one in five problem gamblers will attempt suicide; that's the highest rate of any addiction.
Andrew said he had considered suicide: "Yes, sir. I … I was gonna give it a shot. I was calm about it. I accepted it. I wanted to do it. I personally had a letter written out. So, yes, it was gonna happen. And thankfully, my dad called the authorities up here, and just before I could end my life, I got a knock on the door."
The American Gaming Association
, the industry's trade group, declined "CBS Sunday Morning"'s request for an interview, but in a statement said, "The U.S. legal gaming industry works alongside 5,000 state and tribal regulators every day to promote responsibility, support services for individuals who may experience disordered gambling, and protect individuals from predatory and pervasive illegal and unregulated market actors that avoid regulation and fail to deliver any programs that embrace responsibility or address problem gambling.
"In fact, legal, regulated gaming has expanded to over 40 states and tribal jurisdictions in large part due to the public's belief and trust in our commitment to regulation and responsibility, as well as investments in states and tribal communities that drive economic growth," the association said.
The sportsbooks offer the number for a problem gambling helpline. If you look carefully, it's right at the bottom of an ad promoting gambling.
Here's the harsh reality: the biggest losers are some of the sportsbooks' best customers. Levant said, "The companies are enjoyable entertainment for an overwhelming majority of people. But their business model, over 80% of their profits, are made from the 15% of people who are gambling the most."
Which is why Levant says the gambling industry encourages players to keep going with so-called "bonus bets," including what's known as a "reload bonus."
He said, "When a person's account has gone to zero, the gambling companies offer them, 'If you redeposit right now, we'll give you 50% additional credits to continue gambling with. You've already lost money. Put more money in, and we'll give you some credits to chase your losses.' It's called a 'reload bonus.' They seem very sinister. They seem very purposeful. They seem designed to keep you in action.
"I had a patient once refer to reload bonuses as the neighborhood dope dealer, 'Giving me $10 extra in my bag 'cause they knew I was a little down and out that week,'" he said.
And for what the industry describes as its most loyal players, they offer V.I.P. programs.
Andrew had his own V.I.P. host. "What they tell you it's for is to make your gambling experience better," he said. "And in reality, if I went a day without depositing, or playing, I would get a text or an email. 'Where have you been? Here's a profit booster bonus that you can use to get you back in the game,' is the one they love to say."
Shaun said, "The best was, 'We missed you.'"
The gambling industry says only 1% of adult Americans have a severe gambling problem. That may be a low estimate, but even 1% represents 2.5 million American adults.
We end where we began, back in 1990, with Stephen Greenberg, who was then deputy commissioner of baseball, before a Senate subcommittee. He said, "When gambling is permitted on team sports, winning the bet may become more important than winning the game."
Thirty-five years ago, they were looking into the dangers of what
might
happen. Today, hundreds of billions of dollars later, the evidence is all around us.
If you or someone you know is struggling with gambling, help is available.
The National Problem Gambling Helpline
offers free, confidential support 24/7. Call 1-800-GAMBLER to speak with trained counselors who can provide guidance, resources, and treatment options.
If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or a suicidal crisis, you can reach the
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
by calling or texting 988. You can also
chat with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline here
.
For more information about
mental health care resources and support
, The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) HelpLine can be reached Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.–10 p.m. ET, at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or email [e-mail].
For more info:
Story produced by Dustin Stephens. Editor: Ed Givnish.
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