We recently quoted journalist Tim Marcin, who knows plenty about the potentially dangerous combination of sports and gambling.
 That post includes only a small portion of the thoughts that Marcin shares. He also points out the careful balancing act that sports gambling promoters must maintain with “warnings, hotline numbers, and legal compliance readings.”

Bet peddlers are legally obligated to warn the customer that he or she (overwhelmingly he, because this is more of a guy thing) could wind up in big, big trouble. Also, they want his or her money. So gamblers have to endure long-winded commercials laced with warnings.

Producing these cautionary screeds is like donning a reverse apron — one that covers not the front but the backside. To make matters worse, because broadcasts go everywhere, the pitch/warning has to include unique details about the rules in each state.

Also, every ad must promote awareness of a national help line, like “Concerned with your play? Call 1800 gambler.” By the way, why not ask, “Concerned with your habit?” (Side note: The wording alone seems meant to assure someone that they have no problem. What could be wrong with a little “play”?) So the live reads on air and the copy in print publications consume more and more airtime or page space, becoming ever more expensive. For example, Marcin says,

Gambling advertisers spent 40 percent more in 2022 than they did they year prior.

To state it plainly, this means that the sponsor needs to make an even bigger profit off the sucker — oops, we meant the end user (the bettor) in order to thrive. And thrive they do. (Side note: Just imagine a world where every pitch for cookies and each restaurant packet of sugar had to include similar warnings.)

At any rate, it has become clear that a lot of business heads are determined to wring every dollar from the pockets of people who live to gamble, whether they call it a habit, just play, an addiction, a lifestyle, or whatever. As a recent academic paper states,

Following legalization, sports betting spreads quickly, with both the number of participants and frequency of bets increasing over time… The growth of these markets was swift, generating over $120 billion in total bets and $11 billion in revenues in 2023.

The betting habit is, in polite psychological terms, “highly persistent” and the average participant tends to increase the amounts risked, over time, and those increases are “often substantial, likely reflecting not only learning curves, advertising yields, and social norms, but also in some cases addiction and increased tolerance for losses.” Oh, and by the way, in case anyone was wondering…

Evidence from other gambling contexts indicates that bookmakers exploit bettors’ cognitive biases and lack of skill.

Relevant Entertainment Break

In the 1998 movie Phoenix, a cop named Harry with a gambling addiction plots a theft from the bookies who are pressuring him for debt repayment. (The theme is: Never, ever trust a gambler.) Of course, that plan fails. Shot and bleeding, he breaks into a disused building.

Alone, hunted, and in pain, Harry stages a race between two cockroaches. His favorite loses, so he burns a $100 bill. He doesn’t seem to know or care that when you bet against yourself, you always lose. There is no other way it could go. This is a metaphor for addiction itself. Whether you lose or win, you always lose.

Written by Pat Hartman. First published August 8, 2025.

Sources:

“Endless gambling ads have become the scourge of sports podcasts,” Mashable, April 14, 2023.

“Gambling Away Stability: Sports Betting’s Impact on Vulnerable Households,” NBER, October 23, 2014.

Image Copyright: Kaz_Graphics/Pixabay.