This story was originally published by our news partners at WBUR. We are republishing it through the New England News Collaborative.
On a recent Tuesday night at an Episcopal church in Canton, the final words of The Serenity Prayer hung in the air as the weekly Gamblers Anonymous meeting broke up.
Michael, who runs the meeting, lingered behind. He said the recovery group has been growing — and getting younger.
“We’ve had 17 new members, I think, in the last five months,” he said. “And I’d say at least two-thirds of them are in their 20s or 30s.”
They had come for help, Michael said, because of online sports betting.
Massachusetts legalized online sports betting in 2023, joining a wave of states chasing new tax revenue. Residents could now bet on almost any game, at any hour, from their phones.
“Take one of the most addictive behaviors in mankind and then combine it with one of the most addicting devices of all time,” Michael said. “It’s obviously going to be a disaster.”
(WBUR agreed not to use the full names of people in recovery for this story due to their concerns about the stigma of addiction.)
The rise in new attendees — or “kids,” as some of the older members of the 12-step program call them — can feel like a double-edged sword.
“You’re like, ‘Awesome, these guys are tackling their problems early in life,’ ” Michael said. “But the flip side is, for every kid we’re seeing, there’s probably 20 to 100 that aren’t coming in.”
WBUR spoke with addiction specialists across Massachusetts and interviewed young people in recovery, including several from a Gamblers Anonymous group in Canton.
One of those men is 26-year-old Jason, who has been in recovery for about six months.
He said he started betting on sports in college with bookies on campus.
“I always had a love and a passion for sports,” he said. “At first it was, it was something that was fun.”
That changed nearly three years ago, after Massachusetts legalized sports betting for people 21 and older. Suddenly, he could bet on nearly anything — including games overseas. At the height of his addiction, Jason estimated, he was placing up to 50 wagers a day.
“I was just trapped in my phone, watching the gambling lines or watching this European basketball game,” he recalled.
And the advertisements on TV and social media from the big national brands — DraftKings, which is headquartered in Boston, and its rival FanDuel — drew him in more.
“Their whole goal is to flood you with it so that you feel kind of suffocated and you’re constantly thinking about it,” he said.
Beyond the financial losses, gambling addiction caused him to lose the trust of people close to him, like his parents.
“It destroys relationships because then you’re lying to people about what you need money for,” he said. “It’s a hard thing.”
Since getting help, Jason said he has repaired those relationships.
He still watches games on TV — but the deluge of sports betting ads bother him.
“Why are we not educated on the dangers that gambling presents?” he asked.
The advertising blitz
After the U.S. Supreme Court paved the way for states to legalize sports betting in 2018, companies like DraftKings and FanDuel poured hundreds of millions of dollars into marketing.
They offered sign up bonuses and hired celebrities like comedian Kevin Hart and big-name athletes like former Patriots star Rob Gronkowski for flashy commercials.
“There was just this blitz of advertisements that particularly appealed to younger people,” said Lia Nower, who directs the Center for Gambling Studies at Rutgers University.
She said the current moment reminds her of another era.
“Gambling is where cigarettes were in the ’40s, when we had the Marlboro Man and every actress with a cigarette on one of those extenders,” Nower said. “Right now it’s glamorized. People are not understanding that this is an addiction like any other.”
But for the companies — and for Massachusetts — the marketing paid off.
In October, the state set a new monthly record for sports wagering. People in Massachusetts bet $892 million on sports, according to the state’s gaming commission, a 20% jump compared to the same month last year. Nearly all of it was wagered online.
Massachusetts grabs a cut of the action.
Online sports betting revenue is taxed at 20%. Since legalization, the state has collected $350 million from the seven companies licensed to operate.
A surge in calls for help
Unlike other addictions, the number of people who engage in problem gambling is not tracked by the federal government’s public health agencies. Massachusetts doesn’t keep a count either.
But there are signs that as sports betting has exploded in Massachusetts, so have gambling problems among young adults.
The number of Massachusetts residents in their 20s and 30s who contacted the state’s gambling hotline and were referred to treatment more than doubled after legal sports betting went live three years ago, according to Department of Public Health data obtained through a public records request.
The hotline, which is listed at the end of commercials and on sports betting apps, connects people to counselors and treatment programs.
“Any evidence that shows that we have an increase in addiction is concerning for the commission,” said Eileen O’Brien, a member of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, which regulates sports betting.
The hotline data includes all types of gambling, not just sports betting. But addiction treatment clinicians who spoke to WBUR said online sports betting was driving nearly all the cases involving young adults.
Kyle Faust, a clinical psychologist who directs Massachusetts General Hospital’s Digital Addiction and Gambling Treatment Program, said he’s seen a rise in young patients struggling with gambling.
“It can be extremely severe,” Faust said. “Somebody’s going to be more susceptible to depression, different types of anxiety disorders. And if somebody is significantly in debt, they are gonna feel trapped and helpless and feel like there’s no way out.”
Before betting apps, he said, gambling required more effort: a drive to a casino or a trip to Las Vegas.
“The easier you make it to place bets,” Faust said, “the more people are going to be struggling with this.”
‘I just gambled our entire savings away’
Adam, 33, said he tried to limit his betting at first. He was living in Connecticut in 2021 when the state legalized sports betting. He later moved to Massachusetts.
“I had sort of convinced myself that I could do it responsibly,” he said. “So that meant a $10 bet here or there.”
But, he said, “what happens with this addiction, or any others, is that’s sort of not enough.”
With the DraftKings and FanDuel apps on his phone, Adam could bet on multiple games at once. Over time, his wagers got more frequent and riskier as he tried to win the money back.
When he was out with his girlfriend, he’d repeatedly excuse himself — sometimes to a restroom — to go use his phone.
“What I was doing was checking scores and putting in more bets, things of that sort,” said Adam. “I would be up at all hours of the night — betting on this sport, that sport, sports in other countries that I knew nothing about.”
One night in February 2024, as the gambling losses piled up, he decided to put everything he had left on a single Bruins game.
“I walked into our bedroom where she was sleeping and I woke her up,” he said.
Boston had lost.
“I said, ‘I have something to tell you — I just gambled our entire savings away.’ ”
Adam told WBUR that it “was the worst night of my life, having to reveal all of that that I’d been hiding for so long.” With the support of his then-girlfriend, now wife, Adam entered treatment and now attends Gamblers Anonymous meetings every week.
“But looking back on it, that was one of the biggest turning points of my life,” he said.
Adam said the shame surrounding gambling addiction was part of the problem.
“If I knew that I would have had such a supportive wife and family, I would’ve asked for help earlier,” Adam said.
Setting limits
Sports betting companies offer tools intended to protect people from developing gambling problems. Their apps let users set limits on deposits. Customers also can sign up for “cooling-off” periods and self-exclusion programs to ban themselves from wagering.
DraftKings offered an interview with Lori Kalani, its chief responsible gaming officer. Asked how the company viewed a rise in gambling disorders among young people, she emphasized the company’s efforts at promoting its “responsible gaming” tools.
“The vast majority of people who bet on sports do it responsibly as a form of entertainment,” Kalani said. “Although we do appreciate and recognize that it poses a problem for some people. Placing a bet is fine, but everybody should do so within a limit they set for themselves.”
She added that DraftKings has the ability to flag customers when it notices unusual activity, like betting for hours in the middle of the night.
“They will get a message alerting them and saying, ‘Hey, you’ve been on the app for several hours. Would you like to set some limits around the time that you can spend?’ ” Kalani said.
Kalani said every sports betting commercial lists a hotline as required by state law.
FanDuel said in a statement they “recognize that there are customers who may be at-risk of gambling harm and we work to quickly connect those customers to resources,” including a free mental health assessment. The company said it views increased use of resources like gambling hotlines as a sign of more awareness for available support.
Public health experts said tools like betting limits and self-exclusion programs can help some customers, but are not enough — particularly for younger people whose brains are still developing and learning to manage risk and money.
Nower of Rutgers University said her research on sports betting in New Jersey found that a very small proportion of bettors in their early 20s use those safety features.
“What we know from all of our years of research is: the earlier you’re introduced to gambling, the more frequently you gamble, the more activities you gamble on, the higher your risk,” Nower said.
And in Massachusetts, the problem isn’t limited to young adults. There’s evidence that sports betting is reaching kids who aren’t old enough to legally gamble.
At a State House hearing on gambling legislation last month, Andrea Freeman of the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts, presented startling findings from a youth behavior survey in Springfield.
“In 2024, almost 30% of eighth graders surveyed reported that they’d participated in sports gambling in the past year,” she told lawmakers.
The survey’s definition was broad, including fantasy sports and bets with friends with and without money. But Freeman called it a “notable” increase from 2019, before sports betting was launched in the state.
Some lawmakers said they regretted what online sports betting had unleashed on residents.
“When I voted to legalize sports betting, I never thought it would become what it is,” said state Sen. John Keenan at the November hearing.
Keenan, a Quincy Democrat who previously supported sports betting, has introduced legislation that would tighten restrictions over sports betting and how it’s marketed — including a proposed ban on sports betting ads during televised games. The bill could come up for a vote next year.
At the hearing, he was remorseful.
“I want to apologize to those who find themselves in the dark spaces of betting addiction and to those working through recovery.”
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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