Sports gambling boom prompts addiction concerns

(NewsNation) — Sports gambling has become increasingly popular over the past five years, and with football season kicking off this weekend, it could be the start of a record-setting fall for sportsbooks.

But that also has some warning about a major risk that comes along with all the excitement.

The sports betting industry is booming, responsible for billions of dollars in tax revenue. Some fear it’s also stirring up an addiction to gambling for millions of Americans.

Earlier this month, ESPN announced it’s jumping into the lucrative world of sports betting. The sports media giant struck a $1.5 billion deal with Penn Entertainment, whose sports betting app will now be called ESPN Bet.

The announcement comes as fans from coast to coast are gearing up for football season.

“There’s a lot of people that only bet on football. So, football is obviously a massive time for sports gambling,” said Sean Green, co-host of “The Sports Gambling Podcast.”

Betting on any sport is now legal in 34 states and Washington, D.C. A Supreme Court decision five years ago struck down a federal ban on commercial sports betting, and since then, Americans have spent $220 billion betting on sports.

The figure has worried addiction recovery advocates like former gambler Ted Hartwell.

“For a small percentage of people, it does become a true addiction, just like a substance can,” said Hartwell, community engagement liaison at the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling. “It is a very serious illness.”

In 2018, the National Council on Problem Gambling found a significant increase in gambling addiction from 2018 to 2021. Today, the group estimates 2 million Americans meet the criteria for pathological gambling.

Advocates are arguing for federal oversight on sports betting and the more than $3 billion generated from those wagers in state and local taxes.

“If we don’t earmark a percentage of those revenues back to this issue, we are all going to suffer tremendously,” Hartwell said.

Some financial experts argue the sports betting boom isn’t quite so dark, providing jobs and state tax revenue.

With giant companies like ESPN now joining apps like Draft Kings and FanDuel for a spot in the sports betting world, gambling on your favorite game is the future of entertainment, says Ted Jenkin, CEO of Oxygen Financial.

“People are paying $1,000 to go see Taylor Swift, and it may be worth every dollar and that’s entertainment to them. For other people spending $1,000 to bet on 500 games a year, may be entertainment to them,” Jenkin said. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

This past Super Bowl made history, not only on the field but in the sportsbooks. The American Gaming Association predicted a record number of fans would bet an estimated $16 billion on the game, double estimates from the year before.