Spring is a difficult season for those struggling with gambling addiction.
Gambling creeps into spaces it usually doesn’t appear, as coworkers fill out March Madness brackets and contribute to office pools. Advertisements for sports betting services reach a fever pitch online and on television. Access to these services is always just an app download away.
“People can gamble and do gamble 365 days a year, but right now it’s very prevalent,” said Dr. Rick Zehr, Director of Addiction and Substance Abuse Services at Trillium Place, an affiliate of Carle Health.
Zehr says there’s many similarities between gambling and other addictions. People with a gambling addiction can go through physical and emotional withdrawals. Blood serum testing in the 1990s found evidence that gambling addicts receive greater incentives from the brain’s “reward system” for gambling, as it dispenses the neurotransmitter dopamine.
“It’s always important, but maybe doubly important, if you will, this time of year, for them to make sure they’re going to their Gamblers Anonymous meetings,” said Zehr. “They’re really taking care of themselves, or they’re reaching out to their sponsor and safeguarding themselves and their recovery by activating their support systems.”
There’s been a long-standing relationship between sports and betting.
“Even if you go back decades, you see things like an injury report. That’s the handicap to gambling on the game. That’s why an injury report exists,” said Joshua Dickhaus, Director of the Steiner School of Sports Communication at Bradley University.
“It was always for the gambler, so that they could adequately establish a line on who should win or what the appropriate line for a game would be.”
But experts say the nature of that relationship has morphed drastically in a relatively short period of time. Less than a decade ago, sports betting was illegal in most of the country.
“When sports betting was illegal, except for in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, those two locales only handled 1% of all sports bets in America,” said Dickhaus. “Now, with it being increasingly more legal, that number is going up dramatically.”
In 2018, the Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, giving states the power to legislate sports betting in whatever manner they wish. Since then, 38 states and the District of Columbia have legalized sports betting.
The online sports betting industry, names like DraftKings, BetMGM and FanDuel, grew exponentially in the wake of legalization. The American Gaming Association expects Americans to wager $3.1 billion on March Madness games in 2025. The estimated figure for Super Bowl LIX was $1.39 billion.
A Nielsen study shows sports betting companies spent around $600 million on television advertising alone in 2023.
Sports leagues are doing their part to adapt to a world of increasing interest in sports betting. For example, the NCAA launched an advertising campaign this week to remind gamblers not to harass student athletes after losing a bet.
The NCAA has studied the impact of sports betting through a partnership with the Signify Group. A study from 2024 found that 1 in 3 student-athletes had received abusive messages from those “with a betting interest.”
As Dickhaus points out, it’s likely that people lose.
“The people that are handicapping these games are professionals and they know what they’re doing, right?” he said. “So, in order to make real money betting on sports, you have to bet the line.”
For those unfamiliar with gambling terms, Dickhaus provides an example. Say Duke University is the first seed, or the team most expected to win the tournament. If you bet $100 dollars on them, you may only profit by $5.
“Normally, to make real money, you need to pick the underdog to cover,” said Dickhaus. “Not to upset, but just to cover the line. Well, those aren’t arbitrary figures. They’re set up for people to lose.”
However, Dickhaus says the way these services are advertised doesn’t make losing look like the most likely outcome. Commercials often feature smiling fans who won big on sports bets.
“Your average person, if they’re really good at it, might win 50 bucks or 100 bucks, but [the commercials] put up the person who won $2 million, right?” Dickhaus said. “And so, it’s not just that they introduced the lingo, they set up an advertisement like you have a high probability of winning and you really do not.”
Zehr says easy access and likely losses are a dangerous combination for bettors.
“They find themselves chasing their losses,” said Zehr. “So, as they’ve lost money, they’re trying to regain that money and that’s actually called chasing – where they’re trying to win it back. But of course, there’s just a downward spiral to it. It leads to that loss of control, where they’re no longer controlling the gambling, but the gambling is actually controlling them.”
Zehr says there’s a concerning trend developing with the rise of public access to gambling avenues like sports betting: more people are entering the downward spiral.
“It’s the same dopamine reward system, brain chemistry, challenge and problem,” he said. “The prevalence of problem gambling has increased over the years with the additional opportunities, if you will, and prevalence of, now, legal sports betting.”
As a sports fan, Dickhaus says he’s noticed a change in the way some people watch sports. Betting services allow fans to bet on just about anything, from the outcome of the game, to how many points the winners pull ahead by, to the coin flip at the start.
“That wasn’t a thing they used to do; they wouldn’t talk about it so openly. It’s just become very commonplace, like it’s normal,” said Dickhaus. “I can’t imagine sitting down to watch a game and really having the line be the thing that I’m most concerned with.”
Dickhaus acknowledges there is a mutually beneficial relationship between the betting services, the leagues and networks that broadcast sports events. There’s a high correlation between people who enjoy things like fantasy sports, video games, and gambling and watching sports.
That translates into more eyes on each round of March Madness.
Dickhaus says predicting the outcome of March Madness has become a less likely prospect over the years. It wasn’t an easy task to begin with.
“Gone are the days of these super teams. Where you’re like, ‘well, that team’s going to the Final Four,’” said Dickhaus. “It makes it much more unpredictable, which means the rate of gambling on the event is going up while your probability of losing is going up.”
Dickhaus says he anticipates sports betting will only become more popular over the next few years.
“It’s becoming so commonplace that the stigma surrounding it is going away,” he said. “So I would say this: while it’s becoming more mainstream, if they can figure out a way to bet on it, they will.”
The average sports bettor, according to Dickhaus, is more likely to be male, an average age of 42, college educated, and married with a family.
Zehr says problem gambling can be extremely dangerous for someone fitting that profile, threatening their relationships, their family and their livelihood.
“They fall into debt. They may fall into bankruptcy. They gamble during work,” he said. “They lose their relationships. They maybe lose their work, etc., and all the physical and mental challenges and consequences that come with that as well, from depression to suicide.”
Zehr said people seeking treatment can call 309-691-1055 to get in touch with the gambling addiction center at Trillium Place or visit their website.
People who believe they have a gambling problem or know someone who does can seek help by calling 1-800-GAMBLER, texting GAMB to 833234, or visiting AreYouReallyWinning.com. The Suicide and Crisis Lifeline can be reached at 988.
