The House Edge: How Sports Gambling Hooks Us (Part 1: The Hook & The Brain)
Sports gambling is probably more insidious than you thought.
In college and early in my career, I loved March Madness pools and fantasy draft nights. The smack talk was half the fun. For me, the betting itch never stuck. What did stick is a growing conviction that today’s sports betting product isn’t the same casual game we remember.
Today sports betting is engineered to hook people, especially young men. And you won’t hear much about it on TV; the sportsbooks are now some of the biggest advertisers in sports media. So let’s dig in, sparked by Michael Lewis’s excellent season 4 of Against the Rules, and look at what’s really happening.
This week I’ll hit the broad truths. In the next two posts, I’ll dive deeper into how these numbers play out in real life and what it means for families and communities. Normally I prefer to stick to the positives and personal growth, but for many sports gambling is hijacking their internal wiring and I feel compelled to say something.
1. Growth ≠ Success
Since legalization in 2018, Americans have wagered nearly $450 billion, with sportsbooks pulling in a record $13.7 billion in revenue in 2024. But state “tax wins” come with a human loss: in states with online betting, bankruptcy filings jumped 28% within four years of legalization. That’s not economic progress, that’s wealth transfer from vulnerable households into corporate coffers.
2. It’s Built Like a Drug
Sportsbooks aren’t selling entertainment; they’re selling brain chemistry. Betting floods the brain with dopamine in the same regions activated by cocaine. Over time, gamblers build tolerance, needing bigger wagers to feel the same rush. Research shows this rewiring also weakens the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that controls planning and impulse. And the fallout is brutal: one in five gambling addicts contemplates suicide, the highest rate among all addictions.
3. Young Brains Are the Bullseye
Impulse control doesn’t fully develop until the mid-20s. That makes young men especially vulnerable, and the industry knows it. Studies show gambling ads are nearly four times more appealing to 11–24 year olds than adults. On college campuses, 1 in 10 students is already a pathological gambler. For some, tuition money is being funneled into apps instead of classrooms.
4. Suicide Isn’t Rare, It’s Central
Gambling debt and shame are powerful triggers. In some regions, debt is cited in 83% of suicides linked to betting. This isn’t a fringe risk; it’s baked into the system. When you build a product on compulsion, these tragedies aren’t side effects. They’re part of the model.
5. The Fun Disappears Fast
The early excitement of filling out a bracket with friends is worlds apart from sitting alone, phone in hand, chasing losses at 1 a.m. The industry markets the first scenario, but most profits come from the second. As Michael Lewis uncovered*, sportsbooks limit skilled bettors but roll out the red carpet for losing ones. The house doesn’t just win, it selects who it wants to keep playing.
*I just want to stress again Michael Lewis’s work on this subject. His season 4 of the Against the Rules podcast is what pushed me to speak up with his narrative based investigative reporting and deep dive into this critical subject.
Why This Matters
Adults should have freedom to take risks. But when a product is engineered like a slot machine, turbo-charged by personalized nudges, and aimed at brains still developing self-control… it stops being just “fun.” It becomes a public health emergency.
Next week in Part 2, I’ll break down how the industry targets you (and your kids) with influencer campaigns, VIP hosts, and personalized nudges that would be illegal in other sectors. And in Part 3, we’ll look at the broader bill society pays in bankruptcies, family breakdowns, and community costs.
📞 Resources if you or someone you know is struggling:
1-800-GAMBLER • 800gambler.org
NCPG Helpline: 1-800-522-4700