‘I can stop at any point’: sports betting among teens a serious concern

Seventeen year old James Walker (pseudonym) wakes up to the hellish noise of a default iPhone alarm. It’s eight in the morning and he has to get ready for school. But instead of getting up right after shutting off the alarm, Walker checks to see if his bet from the night before hit.

It didn’t, and he only missed hitting his bet by a single reception from Eagles running back D’Andre Swift. Walker had only just begun betting on sports because it made watching them more fun and was something he could talk about with his friends.

“Even though the bet missed, I wasn’t mad. My friend and I had just figured out a strategy that we thought would be profitable and we [almost hit]. All we had to do was regroup and place another bet that would hit,” said Walker. 

At this point, it was 8:05 a.m. and Walker still hadn’t gotten out of bed. “I really wanted the next bet we placed to hit so I immediately checked the stat lines on players who could be options to bet on that night and then texted my friend with the players that I thought would hit their projected lines,” said Walker. 

Even though Walker himself doesn’t have access to an app to place bets his friends do.  “My parents wouldn’t let me use their information to get onto a gambling app myself so I places bets through my friend. I paid him fifteen dollars and told him I was done when I lost it,” said Walker. 

Walker lost the rest of his money later that week and said he has quit betting on sports for the time being. “It’s fun and an enjoyable thing to talk about, but it’s not something I want to spend a bunch of money on,” said Walker.

Although Walker said he has stopped betting, many of his friends continue to use daily fantasy apps to place bets on sporting events.

Apps and Accessibility 

Prizepicks is a popular daily fantasy sports app among sports bettors over and under the legal age to gamble. According to the PrizePicks website, Prizepicks is “the easiest and fastest way to play Daily Fantasy Sports.”  

“I use PrizePicks instead of other apps because unlike most other sports betting apps you don’t need a social security number to use the app,” said Doug Johnson (pseudonym), age 18. 

PrizePicks is categorized as a daily fantasy sports website because it doesn’t offer players the ability to bet on the outcome of sporting events. Instead, users bet on the stats of individual players during professional sporting events. 

PrizePicks offers two kinds of “plays” or wagers that a user can bet on. The first is called a power play. A power play is a type of parlay (two or more bets combined into one) where a bettor can predict a combination of two to six bets over/under bets on the individual stats of professional athletes. The other kind of play is a flex play. In a flex play, not every one of your bets needs to hit to make money. 

“Flex plays are safer than power plays because you can go two for three on your bets and still make money. This does mean you make less money if all three bets hit. I personally only do power plays because they make you more money,” said Malcolm Hope (pseudonym), age 17. 

Growth of an Industry and Addiction

In 2018 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that each of the 50 states in America could write their own legislature on sports betting. Since then Americans have bet more than 220 billion dollars on sports. The AGA (American Gambling Association) reported that since 2019 the number of Americans open to placing a wager on a sporting event has increased by 24 million people. 

As the sports gambling industry grows, betting on sports becomes much easier than ever before. “Legal betting is already part of mainstream sports culture, and I anticipate this trend will grow as adoption increases. The accessibility right now for fans to place a live, micro-bet during a game, for example, shares parallels with other smartphone-powered capabilities like hailing a ride, buying a stock, or playing a podcast,” said Jason Robins, the CEO of Draft Kings. 

Sports betting is very easy to access. “The way I gained access to sports betting was by simply asking my dad to use his information. It’s way too easy for young kids to get on these apps; all you have to do is gamble under your mom or dad’s name,” said Tim Ortega (pseudonym), age 16.

With the accessibility to sports betting now at an all-time high, so is the estimated risk of gambling addiction. According to the NCPG (National Survey on Gambling Attitudes), the risk of becoming addicted to gambling rose by 30% between 2018 and 2021. Developing a gambling addiction can destroy someone’s life. 

Gambling addiction has been associated with higher risks of depression, anxiety, and suicide. People addicted to gambling often rack up huge amounts of debt and often lose friends, family, and property. Men, especially young men, and those who have less money are at higher risks of developing gambling addictions. 

One of the big draws to sports betting is the get-rich-quick idea. “It felt amazing, getting $40 for virtually nothing,” said Ortega. According to a survey done by the NCAA many underage gamblers bet between one and fifty dollars a day and lose between 10 and 300 dollars a day. 

Underage Gamblers Opinions

Even though the risk of getting addicted to sports betting is at an all-time high many people under the legal gambling age continue to wager their money on sporting events. Some of them are quite successful and have made $500 or more of single bets. 

“I feel like you only have a gambling addiction when you start losing money, but if you are making money then I don’t see a problem with betting often,” said Hope.

But some are not so lucky. They have lost money, and continue to gamble. “At first I was only going to do it now and then. Now I do it almost every night. It’s bad. Once I make my money I have to get out,” said Mike Mcarthy (pseudonym). 

Others have recently quit gambling to prove to themselves that they can stop. But will they be able to stick it out?

“You just have to be thick-minded. I can stop at any point, and right now I have currently stopped,” said Ortega. “The people that get addicted are desperate to get rich quick and not willing to let good things come to them. Those are the people who will either get lucky or go broke trying.”

Getting help

However, according to a sports addiction support site on the mass.gov website, people who think they have control over their gambling may not actually have as much control as they think. Experts say parents should talk to their kids about gambling, and students and parents are encouraged to look into resources that help curb sports betting and other forms of gambling.

According to research, youth who gamble at an early age are more likely to develop a problem later on.

In Massachusetts, 50% of high school youth and 45% of middle school youth reported gambling. Changing the conditions surrounding the addiction and reaching out for support can help make a difference in curbing the behavior.