Last February, the Super Bowl took place in Las Vegas for the first time. This venue was perfect since gambling is such a big part of sports today. America has recently moved its long-standing passion for sports betting into the open. Now, we can place bets right from our phones. This has led to a major mismatch: young male gamblers versus gambling companies. These companies use advanced AI and data to lure fans into making quick bets. Instead of betting on games, they bet on every single play.
The early results? Billions are earned by gambling companies, leagues, and state governments. As we shared in February, a rising number of sports bettors are struggling to keep up with the flood.
Platforms like TonyBet play a big role in modern betting. They offer real-time odds, live betting tools, and insights. This lets casual fans and seasoned players enjoy sports in fun ways.
Sports broadcasts are now saturated with sportsbook ads from brands such as FanDuel and DraftKings.
And who needs a bookie when a fresh bet is a swipe away?
He’d sneak in bets at family gatherings. He’d delete the apps one day and reinstall them the next. It was his way to get clean: a tech downgrade.
There are distinct signs of trouble. A Siena College poll from February showed that nearly half of young men who bet online think they bet too much. Since New Jersey made online sports betting legal, calls to the state’s problem gambling helpline have tripled. The largest caller demographic: 25-34.
Harry Levant is a therapist for gambling addiction. He is a key voice on how online sports betting affects public health. A decade ago, Levant was a trial lawyer. His gambling addiction was intense; he even used client money to feed it, which got him disbarred. Now, in his new career, he sees that today’s desperate gamblers look and act quite different.
Harry Levant says some of his patients gamble constantly — in the shower, before getting out of bed, even while driving. There are no guardrails. The human brain develops over time. A young man’s risk-reward system isn’t fully formed until he turns 25.
Levant showed us what gambling means today. It was NFL Sunday, but on DraftKings, the betting options went well beyond football. And there was tennis.
The chances for action are truly endless. In-game microbetting lets users bet on every pitch, serve, and snap.
DraftKings uses AI algorithms to constantly update odds. This makes it hard for the average fan to judge if a bet is good or bad, especially in real time.
In the U.K., gambling reform advocate Matt Zarb-Cousin has become one of the most vocal critics of the industry. He is also a recovering gambling addict.
Addiction is intensified, he says, by how much the gambling companies know about each user.
Using Britain’s public transparency laws, Zarb-Cousin obtained data showing how Flutter—the parent company of FanDuel—tracked and targeted one of its U.K. customers.
Bill Miller: I admit there are more famous people with gambling problems. We in the gambling industry are pointing them out. The illegal industry doesn’t flag any of them.
Many high-tech tools aim to attract gamblers to sportsbooks. Yet, those wanting to quit often get an outdated solution: a 1-800 number.
Harry Levant: Because it takes the entire onus and puts it back on the individual. It’s wrong to take something addictive, like gambling or microbetting, and rush it out with artificial intelligence. Then to tell people, “Use this responsibly,” is not right. And it’s very like what happened with tobacco.
Harry Levant doesn’t make that analogy casually. He recently teamed up with Dick Daynard. Daynard is a law professor at Northeastern University. He also helped create the first big lawsuits against major tobacco companies.
Following Daynard’s tobacco playbook, in December, they filed the first in what they say will be a series of lawsuits… suing DraftKings in Massachusetts for deceptive advertising… claims DraftKings says it disagrees with. The team is now pressing Congress to establish national rules for online gambling oversight. They say the current mishmash of state-by-state policies isn’t working.
When the Supreme Court allowed sports betting in 2018, it likely didn’t expect AI odds for every play. It also didn’t foresee alerts designed to keep bettors engaged.