Like many addictions, compulsive gambling appears at first blush to be a problem of self-control. Unlike substance use disorders (SUDs), where people can blame the alcohol or the THC or the fentanyl, etc., for “hijacking” their reward systems, compulsive gamblers have no substance to blame.

However, they blame the same mechanism: surging dopamine leading to a dulled reward response that creates a dependency on self-harming behavior. One of the key similarities between behavioral disorders and SUDs is when the compulsive activity is used to displace stress.

Gambling is entertainment for most people, who judge the cost of gambling against the cost of any other evening’s entertainment, and are able to keep their betting losses to a tolerable minimum. But gambling is not so much entertainment for compulsive gamblers as it is stress relief. They are gambling to relieve the craving to gamble, which is the result of repeatedly using gambling to displace stress.

Similarly, when eating is used to displace stress, it can result in compulsive eating or eating addiction. When alcohol is used repeatedly to displace stress, its use can become habitual and its absence a cause of stress. When drinking alcohol becomes the way to reduce the stress of not drinking alcohol, there is a dependency problem and possibly alcohol use disorder (AUD).

That brings us back to gambling addiction. Even though there is no substance intake causing the compulsion, when gambling is used as displacement, it becomes stress management rather than entertainment. Gambling addiction is not the result of a lack of self-control but a lack of public policy and a public health response.

That’s the opinion of one of the country’s leading experts on gambling addiction, Harry Levant. Levant is a lawyer, public policy expert, and certified gambling counselor. He also stole $2 million of his client’s money as a personal injury attorney in order to feed his gambling habit. After years of schooling and building a practice, it took only two years from when Levant started “borrowing” from his client’s accounts to being sentenced for 13 counts of theft. That was February 2014.

Since then, Levant has devoted himself to making amends for his mistakes. In addition to his juris doctorate, he earned a master’s degree in public health administration from Northeastern University in Boston. He’s also become a certified gambling counselor and therapist, and now he’s going after the big sports betting franchises and casinos that are creating a gambling crisis in America.

Levant was interviewed by Boston’s WBUR Today about a conference he is helping to organize on the public health impacts of online gambling. The event is hosted by the Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) at Northeastern University. The Institute is a non-profit legal research center focused on public health law and advocacy.

Levant told WBUR Today that the recent product liability legal victory against Google’s YouTube and Meta’s Facebook and Instagram has empowered the Institute’s drive to regulate addictive gambling apps. PHAI Executive Director Mark Gottlieb told PR Newswire:

We firmly believe gambling should be regulated like any other addictive product. By convening international researchers and U.S. leaders, this symposium will highlight how evidence-based policies can reduce harm and protect public health.

Problem gambling has soared since Massachusetts legalized online sports betting in 2023. Referrals to treatment from the Massachusetts problem gambling helpline increased from 223 in 2021 to 677 in 2024. Half of the 2024 referrals were for young people aged 20-39. Levant pointed out the “urgent need for comprehensive regulation to protect individuals and families from an industry that continues to prioritize profits over public health.”

The tide appears to be turning against the sports betting apps and prediction markets that have grown faster than any segment of the U.S. economy except for AI. More states have launched legislation to block them; several states that legalized, such as Massachusetts, are rethinking their policies; and the federal government is eyeing reform. The year 2026 could be a make-or-break year for online gambling in the U.S. We’ll keep you up to date with all the details here at AddictionNews.

Written by Steve O’Keefe. First published May 6, 2026.

Sources:

“Public health advocates take on sports gambling in first-of-its-kind summit in Boston,” WBUR Today, April 24, 2026.

“Public Health Advocacy Institute (Phai) to Host the United States’ First-Ever International Symposium Focused on Bringing Comprehensive Public Health Regulation to the Online Gambling Industry,” PR Newswire, April 9, 2026.

“‘I just gambled our entire savings away’: Young adults in Mass. are hooked on online sports betting,” WBUR Today, December 5, 2025.

“From convicted gambler to devoted advocate: Harry Levant’s journey to save others,” NGN Magazine, September 18, 2023.

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