America’s newest version of a trustbuster, investigative journalist Matt Stoller, is out with a scathing exposé called “Addiction Markets: Abolish Corporate-Run Gambling,” in which he lays bare the concentration of market power in an industry that thrives only when Americans lose big.

BIG is in fact the name of Matt Stoller’s Substack newsletter, in which he examines monopolistic behavior across all of America’s market segments. Stoller is the Research Director for the American Economic Liberties Project, a nonprofit organization founded in 2020 to advance anti-monopolistic policy.

Stoller starts out with the stunning statistic that one in five Americans placed a bet in the last year. Most of these bets came through smartphone apps. The total sum wagered since the Supreme Court removed state restrictions on gambling in 2018 is a staggering half a trillion dollars.

In seven short years, legalized gambling syndicates such as FanDuel and DraftKings have infected every aspect of sports in America, from financing marginal teams to how games are broadcast. Stoller summarizes the takeover:

Every major sports media network, sports league, and podcast are now working with a major gambling company. At this point, gambling is intrinsic to the financing of sports; FanDuel now operates “15 regional sports networks across the country previously on the brink of bankruptcy.”

Some of the consequences of having a nation addicted to smartphone wagering, catalogued by Stoller, include:

• Recent gambling-related fraud involving two NBA players
• 25% of smartphone gamblers can’t pay a bill due to gambling losses
• 25% of smartphone gamblers say they can’t control their gambling
• 30% of smartphone gamblers are carrying gambling debts
• 21% of gamblers say they have cursed a player or team after losing a bet

Stoller links to an interview with a psychiatrist who lost over $600,000 to gambling addiction, documenting the various ways the syndicates pressured her to continue gambling. He explains how gambling activates dopamine, leading to gambling becoming an addictive activity.

The gambling corporations have learned how to scientifically manage that dopamine release to maximize revenues. The fact that companies are allowed to engineer an addiction that extracts heavy financial losses from their victims is somewhat beyond belief. Now, the victims are starting to fight back.

In Maryland, Senator Joanne C. Benson introduced a bill to repeal online sports wagering in the state. In Vermont and New York, state legislatures are also pushing back against the gambling corporations. 43% of U.S. adults think legalized sports gambling is a bad thing, up from 34% just a few years ago.

Some of the actions Stoller says states are considering to constrain the avarice of gambling syndicates include:

• Enforcing strict age limits on gamblers
• Terminating VIP programs that try to trap heavy gamblers
• Eliminating push notifications that lure gamblers back to the app
• Setting “stake limits” that restrict how much an individual can bet
• Limiting advertising by gambling companies

At the end of the deep dive into “addiction markets,” Stoller drops a bomb that could see legalized gambling get much bigger. The merger of prediction markets, such as Kalshi, with gambling companies such as DraftKings or FanDuel, could lead to gambling being regulated by federal securities regulators rather than state governments.

A merger of prediction markets and gambling markets could lead to the end of any state restrictions of online gambling. If you’re hoping the federal government will step in, they are, but on the wrong side. As Stoller points out:

Donald Trump Jr. is an investor in Kalshi, and President Trump’s company, TruthSocial, is launching a predictions market…

It’s gambler beware now that both state and federal governments are in cahoots with smartphone gambling syndicates to share in the wealth generated from creating crushing financial losses for customers and constituents.

Written by Steve O’Keefe. First published November 6, 2025.

Sources:

“Addiction Markets: Abolish Corporate-Run Gambling,” BIG by Matt Stoller, October 31, 2025.

“FanDuel and DraftKings and the online betting duopoly,” Organized Money, November 19, 2024.

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