The 60 minutes video titled “Sports betting boom fuels concerns over problem gambling” delves into the impact of the recent legalization and widespread availability of sports betting in the United States. The video discusses the Super Bowl being held in Las Vegas for the first time, highlighting the prominent role of gambling in sports today. The video addresses the mismatch between young male gamblers and the sophisticated AI and data-driven strategies employed by gambling companies.
The rise of sports betting on mobile phones has led to billions in revenue for gambling companies, leagues, and state governments. However, concerns are growing over the impact on problem gambling, particularly among young men. The video features interviews with individuals who have struggled with gambling addiction and highlights the lack of federal funding for gambling research and addiction support.
The prevalence of sports betting promotions during games and the allure of quick and easy bets have raised concerns about the growing number of young gambling addicts. Additionally, the video explores the lack of guardrails in place to protect vulnerable individuals and the potential public health crisis associated with online sports betting. The video also presents the perspective of a gambling reformer who warns of the crisis heading towards the US based on the experiences in the UK. Overall, the video sheds light on the complex and concerning ramifications of the sports betting boom in the US.
Watch the video by 60 Minutes
Next Sunday on CBS the Super Bowl will for the first time be held in Las Vegas A fitting venue given the prominent role gambling plays in sports today America’s recently brought its age-old love of sports betting out of the shadows and onto our phones and this has created an
All-time mismatch pitting man against machine gamblers overwhelmingly young men versus gambling companies armed with the sophisticated AI data and Engineering enticing fans to make snap bets not just on games but on every play Within games the early results billions for gambling companies leagues and state governments and a growing population of
Sports betters struggling to defend against the rush the story will continue in a [Applause] moment Boston is nothing if not a sports and when there’s a game odds are good there are guys like Billy Andrew and John at the local bar for the camera they grew up playing hockey
Together now in their mid 20s they bond over beer Wings trash talk and lately a new fixture of The Fan Experience what do you guys bet on football or hockey do you have a team brin’s Patriots you want to lose money bet on the winning and losing money for millions of fans like
These guys it’s one more reason to watch and enjoy sports big news during games promotions for sports books like FanDuel and DraftKings are everywhere bet $5 to get $200 a 2018 Supreme Court decision opened the door for states to legalize sports betting you want to spread to the
Money line calized by new Revenue 38 States and Counting have done just that I’ll take the palic and Americans have spent more than a quarter of a trillion dollars sports betting that’s the GDP of Greece leagues have cashed in networks too man I got to teach you how to gamble
For decades odds and point spreads were forbidden topics now ESPN has its own sports book called it baby full disclosure when I work at the tennis channel I sit here the DraftKings fun download the app so right now I’m just looking at the back at the bar casual
Social betters like Billy Andrew and John Revel in their wins would you throw down $8 for 347 so you won 300 youon wait you that much it’s still early Innings and remarkably there is no federal funding for gambling research so data is scarce but survey after survey
Confirms that of the 50 million or so Sports betters in the US men under the age of 35 are faren away the biggest demographic for decades leagues feared gambling would corrupt competition so far that crisis hasn’t happened but the last 5 years have given rise to a surge
In young gambling addicts Joe rillo Now 26 says his problem started in high school then in 2022 sports betting apps came to his home state of New York what impact did that have it had a big impact I’ve worked my whole life so you know I
Got a check every week but it would deposit right into whatever app I was using were you interested in the game itself I am a sports fan but as the years grew on you become less interested in the game itself and more interested in the result and who needs a bookie
When a fresh bet is just a swipe away you know you can wake up in the middle of the night take your phone out set an alarm for a match maybe overseas or something like that I would place a beted on anything anywhere at any time he’d sneak in bets at family functions
He’d delete the apps one day reinstall them the next to help get clean a tech downgrade this is the phone I use on a daily basis you can’t gamble on this phone say not too many apps on that phone huh no I think people who aren’t familiar might think of the typical
Gambling addict you know middle-aged guy in a windbreaker betting his retirement savings it’s more prominent in the younger generation I think than ever the sports books and the commercials and the leagues themselves are making it look so cool to gamble and risk your money there are distinct signs
Of trouble according to a Cenna College poll which we can report for the first time now of the young men wagering online nearly half feel they’re betting more than they should in the 5 years since New Jersey legalized online Sports gambling calls to the state’s problem gambling helpline nearly tripled the
Largest caller demographic 25 to 34 this is a public health emergency happening and we’re not talking about it yet Harry Levant is a gambling addiction therapist and leading voice on the public health impacts of online sports betting a decade ago Levant was a trial lawyer whose gambling addiction was so Fierce
He used client money to fuel his habit leading to his disbarment in his current career he’s noticed today’s desperate Gambler looks and acts a lot different I have patients who gamble in the shower I have patients who gamble before they get out of bed in the morning I have
Patients who gamble while they are driving there are no guard rails we scientifically know uh the human brain the risk reward system for a young man isn’t fully formulated until you’re 25 where are the young men getting the money to gamble like this I have patients some of whom are college
Students who have gambled federal student loan money I have young patients who have gambled away inheritances levance showed us what gambling today entails it was an NFL Sunday though on DraftKings the betting options extended far beyond football soccer basketball hockey Motorsports rugby volleyball and there was tennis Pedro renas playing
Alfredo Perez in a challenger qualifying match in Charlottesville those are two names I’ve never heard before who is betting on this match two guys who are nowhere near the top 100 because John this is not about tennis they’re not designing them for the fans of qualifier tennis in Charlottesville they’re
Designed for people who want more action the opportunities for Action are literally Limitless live in-game micro betting allows users to wager on every pitch serve and snap but if you come down here you can bet on the current Drive of the Green Bay Packers will it
Be a punt a touchdown a turnover or a field goal using algorithms powered by AI DraftKings refreshes the odds constantly the common fan can’t possibly calculate whether it’s a good bet or a Bad Bet much less in real time where are these numbers coming from how do they
Know what the odds of Green Bay losing a fumble are we we don’t know that they have access to all of the stats combined with artificial intelligence and the ability to predict what will draw the action in Matt zarb cousin is a leading gambling reformer in the UK he is also a
Recovering gambling addict I would say understand what the nature of these companies really is um they are big data companies that are extractive zarb cousins successfully lobbied for stricter gambling regulations in Britain limiting how betting companies advertise and how much gamblers can wager he says the UK where gambling’s been legal for
Decades offers a sobering glimpse into what he believes is a crisis headed straight toward the US there’s lots of opportunities to gamble in Britain you assume it’s safe you don’t realize how easy it is to get addicted to that stuff addiction is intensified he says by how much the gambling companies know about
Each user is recently zarb cousin was able to use Britain’s public information laws to access data the Betting Company flutter owner of FanDuel had on a UK customer that data was used to tailor offers and push notifications to keep the guy in action where’ you learn so
About 93 different data points they they had on this individual were when they bet what offers worked what inducements worked on this particular one he played slots for 3 to four days straight they knew the life stage the customer life stage it was at so win back they
Described it so people that have given up gambling for a while and they’re trying to get them to come back there’s also like 2,514 deposits in a year which is uh about seven a day so these gambling companies that know when we’re most impetuous that those Reams and reams of
Data on us what kind of matches that for the uh the Adolescent male it’s not a fair exactly it’s not a fair wager do they have enough data to pinpoint potential problem gamblers oh without a doubt yeah they know the people that are addicted flutter insisted to us that the
Company does take steps to protect their term vulnerable customers sometimes Banning them outright the two largest Sports books in the US DraftKings and FanDuel said the same though declined to provide specific instances when they’ve done so we had arranged to speak to DraftKings about all this but abruptly they pulled out of
Our scheduled on camera interview so we came to Washington DC to meet Bill Miller president of the gambling Industries Chief trade group The American gaming Association take out our phone 24 hours a day few swipes how do you reconcile that with the fact that this ENT tainment has the potential to
Addict users yeah the addiction element of are are people addicted to their phones which is kind of a common uh phrase I don’t believe that there is an addiction to mobile bedding any more than there is an addiction to utilization of your phone for any other
Reason you don’t think adding a layer of bedding makes the phone more addictive than just tooling around Instagram no every clinician we’ spoken to has said we noticing a rise in problem gambling there there are a lot more problem gamblers Now by every metric than there
Were pre 2018 I would concede to the fact that there are more known people with gambling problems because we in the gambling industry are flagging those people the Le the illegal industry doesn’t flag any of them Miller told us Sports books look at betting patterns to spot problem gamblers but acknowledged
That a uniform industrywide policy on that is still a work in progress there is problem gambling it is a real problem whether it’s gotten bigger or it’s just become more noticeable because sports betting is legal I think is an unknown really my view absolutely is we need to make sure
That we are giving people the resources they need to to mitigate this issue yet given all the high-tech designed to get gamblers onto the sports book for those seeking to quit they’re often directed to a glaringly old school solution a 1 1800 number $150 bonus is a dangerous
Approach why because it takes the entire onus puts it back on the individual to take an addictive product like gambling and micro betting deliver it in light speed with the use of artificial intelligence and then say to people but now use this responsibly it is wrong and
It’s very similar to what happened with tobacco Harry lant doesn’t make that analogy casually recently he paired up with dick derer a law Prof at Northeastern University an architect of the first major lawsuits against the big tobacco companies along with Mark gotley another public interest lawyer at nor
Eastern they are preparing to wage war against mobile gambling addiction you made a name for yourself fighting big tobacco what do you see as the overlap I mean first of all we’re dealing with an addictive product we’re dealing with an industry that will still defend sometimes on the basis that it’s really
The smoker who’s making the choice chice so we have that exactly with the with the gambling industry following Dan’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 quote
Disagrees with the group is also lobbying Congress to enact Federal Regulations they say the current mishmash of state-by-state policies just isn’t working this is not the temperance Union and you’re trying to outlaw we we have seen um certainly with tobacco a lot of rules to control the
Way these products are promoted and we’d like to see that with these products as well right now um it’s sometimes described as the the wild west right because there’s almost no controls at all safe to say when the Supreme Court opened the floodgates to sports betting in 2018 it didn’t anticipate AI powered
Odds on every snap or tailored push notifications engineered to keep betters Bing that decision was only 5 years ago I know it’s uh that’s the frightening thing what’s it going to look like five years from now I think these products have the potential to become significantly more addictive and
Dangerous in a very short period of time
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Video “Sports betting boom fuels concerns over problem gambling | 60 Minutes” was uploaded on 02/05/2024 to Youtube Channel 60 Minutes