Nothing about it seemed improper. At school, he said, he knew boys who were using adult sports betting apps, and growing irate as they lost actual money.<\/p>\n
Gambling companies and prediction markets have evolved into an inescapable feature of everyday life, rendering Hollywood awards shows<\/a>, professional sports, and even the deaths of foreign leaders<\/a> topics that can be wagered upon. <\/p>\n Younger Americans are especially vulnerable to the industry\u2019s allure. In 2025, 36% of boys ages 11 to 17 reported that they had gambled during the previous year, a Common Sense Media study found. <\/p>\n Of the 1,017 boys who participated in the San Francisco-based nonprofit\u2019s research, 49% said they had encountered gambling content on the social media platforms that they used. Nearly 60% said the content appeared even when they had not searched for it.<\/p>\n \u201cBoys are gambling in large numbers, and well before they\u2019re even eligible to vote,\u201d said James Steyer, Common Sense Media\u2019s founder and CEO. \u201cTo us, that\u2019s a shocking wake-up call to every parent out there, but also, quite frankly, to gambling platforms, to leagues \u2014 like the NFL, the NBA, and MLB \u2014 and to television networks and social media platforms that are constantly putting gambling content in front of kids.\u201d<\/p>\n During the three years prior to the legalization of sports gambling in Pennsylvania, the number of juveniles who called the Pennsylvania Council on Compulsive Gambling for help was just seven, records show. Since Pennsylvania began accepting legal sports wagers in 2018, at least 48 juveniles ages 13 to 17 have sought help from the council. And of the 2,959 calls that the council received in 2025, 32% were from people ages 18 to 34. <\/p>\n That tally is likely an undercount: 6,608 people who last year called the council\u2019s helpline \u2014 1-800-GAMBLER \u2014 hung up when someone answered, while 749 who spoke to an operator refused to disclose their age.<\/p>\n State officials have a limited picture of underage gambling activity, especially in Philadelphia. <\/p>\n A survey of sixth, eighth, 10th, and 12th graders, conducted every other year by the Pennsylvania Department of Education and other agencies, shows that 15.5% of those students in Philadelphia county had gambled \u201cfor money or anything of value\u201d in 2025, below the state average of 18.4%. <\/p>\n But those data are based only on students at 105 local charter and parochial schools, because Philadelphia public schools did not participate in the survey. <\/p>\n In 2023, the same survey found that 25.6% of participating charter school students had gambled, well above the state average. (No explanation is offered for the decrease in gambling behavior. But in previous years, fewer schools participated in the survey.)<\/p>\n Gambling is not the only industry that can influence a young person\u2019s behavior. Online video game platforms and social media companies have also been linked to harmful impacts on adolescents, whose prefrontal cortex \u2014 the area of the brain that helps a person assess risk, maintain focus, and manage emotions \u2014 is not fully developed until about age 25. <\/p>\n Placing bets and questing for items in video games \u2014 like loot boxes in Roblox \u2014 each result in similar, immediate dopamine spikes, said Frank James, a psychiatrist with the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen a kid\u2019s reward system is immature, then it actually causes them to experience a craving for that dopamine release,\u201d James explained. \u201cWhen parents have described to me behaviors that they\u2019re concerned about, they mimic symptoms that I\u2019d see in someone I would treat for opioid addiction or alcohol addiction.\u201d <\/p>\n Last fall, John told a relative, Greg Krausz, that he was using Stadium Live to bet on sports. Krausz was well positioned to help: He works as the director of training and education for the state\u2019s compulsive gambling council. <\/p>\n He asked to see John\u2019s betting history with Stadium Live. <\/p>\n \u201cI lost a lot more [bets] than I won,\u201d John acknowledged during a recent interview. <\/p>\n Krausz explained to him that the odds would always favor companies that were offering betting services. John\u2019s interest in the app later waned. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t really think that I would want to gamble now,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Krausz, through his work with the council, said he has found that some teens are able to access adult betting platforms because parents allow them to use their accounts. Among the boys who told Common Sense Media that they were already gambling, 23% reported that their parents had given permission to use their credit cards.<\/p>\n \u201cSome parents, as you talk to them, they don\u2019t see the big deal,\u201d Krausz said. \u201cBut it\u2019s illegal, and it creates a good deal of risk for everybody involved.\u201d <\/p>\n The power of saturation<\/p>\n Citizens Bank Park was teeming with children on a cloudless Sunday afternoon in mid-April. They had toddled through turnstiles with their parents to witness a pregame birthday celebration for the Phillie Phanatic<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Phanatic and a group of googly eyed mascots played and tumbled on the outfield grass, and the little ones let out appreciative cheers.<\/p>\n It was the type of event that is meant to help a new generation of fans fall in love with coming to the ballpark. But even in this setting cultivated for a young audience, the kids were not free from the gambling industry\u2019s reach. Slender digital boards that wrapped around the seating levels displayed ads for theScore Bet, \u201can official sportsbook of the Phillies.\u201d<\/p>\n A Phillies spokesperson did not respond when asked if the team had a comment.<\/p>\n Major League Baseball, which once shunned players who were involved with gambling, entered into its first partnerships<\/a> with sports betting companies in 2019. Those arrangements this year grew to include a partnership with the prediction market Polymarket. The deal could be worth as much as $300 million<\/a> to MLB, Front Office Sports has reported. <\/p>\n Televised games display betting odds for individual players, as if they are just another statistic to consider beyond home runs and strikeouts. <\/p>\n Michael Robb, the head of research for Common Sense Media, led the nonprofit\u2019s study of 11- to 17-year-olds\u2019 betting activity. Robb said gambling content has \u201csaturated\u201d adolescents\u2019 lives. <\/p>\n \u201cThey see a ton of advertising on live sports broadcasts and at any major sporting event they attend. These companies are trying to appeal to adults, but the ads are visible to kids,\u201d he said. \u201cAll of that saturation helps to make gambling seem like a normal part of everyday life. But it didn\u2019t used to be this way.\u201d<\/p>\n The tobacco industry once occupied a similarly ubiquitous position in professional sports. Its logos appeared in stadiums, and athletes helped pitch products like chewing tobacco, which companies explicitly sought to market to young fans<\/a> in the 1970s. <\/p>\n In 1998, the four largest tobacco companies \u2014 facing nationwide litigation over the harm their products caused to consumers\u2019 health \u2014 entered into a master settlement agreement<\/a> with the National Association of Attorneys General. The companies paid more than $200 billion to 46 states, including Pennsylvania, and were prohibited from marketing their products to adolescents.<\/p>\n Getting the companies to consent to those advertising restrictions was \u201csomething that we needed to have,\u201d said D. Michael Fisher, who was Pennsylvania\u2019s attorney general at the time and is now a senior judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. <\/p>\n The agreement meant an end to athletes appearing in magazine ads for cigarette companies, as Baseball Hall of Famers Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and Jackie Robinson once had, or in television commercials hawking chewing tobacco, like Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk did in the late \u201970s. <\/p>\n Those promotional relationships have now been replicated between sports betting companies and some of the most recognizable stars of the last 30 years. <\/p>\n BetMGM counts among its ambassadors former NHL great Wayne<\/a> Gretzky and former Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter. FanDuel offers a slot game called Gronk\u2019s Touchdown Treasures, named after ex-New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski. <\/p>\n In 2023, Sixers legend Allen Iverson appeared in a DraftKings commercial with the comedian \u2014 and North Philly native \u2014 Kevin Hart. Dressed in a black hoodie and matching headband, Iverson stands on a basketball court, ball in hand. <\/p>\n \u201cThis instant offer is kinda like my crossover. Just place your bet,\u201d Iverson says, as the camera cuts abruptly to him sinking a shot over a fallen opponent, \u201cand it\u2019s money!\u201d<\/p>\n Active players, like Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, also promote DraftKings, while Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo earlier this year became a minority shareholder<\/a> in the prediction market Kalshi. <\/p>\n From pool hall bookies to phone apps<\/p>\n States are just beginning to wrestle with how to address the gambling industry\u2019s visibility to young people. <\/p>\n New Jersey earlier this year adopted a law that requires public universities to educate students about the risks of gambling addiction at least once a semester. A bill in the state Senate would expand such education efforts to high schools as well. <\/p>\n In March, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board promoted an advertising campaign called \u201cWhat\u2019s Really at Stake\u201d to raise awareness about underage gambling. <\/p>\n The board cited research that found 75% of college students had gambled \u2014 illegally or legally \u2014 during the last year, with as many as 6% of students meeting the criteria for a gambling problem. <\/p>\n Last spring, Republicans<\/a> and Democrats<\/a> in Pennsylvania\u2019s state House overwhelmingly approved a resolution, introduced by Rep. Tarik Khan, that directed a joint state government commission to study how sports betting platforms use promotions, in-game advertisements, and celebrities to attract customers. <\/p>\n The report, which is expected to be provided soon to lawmakers, is required to also explore kids\u2019 exposure to gambling advertisements. <\/p>\n \u201cWe need to understand the scope of the problem,\u201d said Khan, a Democrat who represents Philadelphia\u2019s 194th Legislative District. \u201cAnd then we have to look at recommendations on how we can improve regulation, and protect people\u2019s health and well-being.\u201d <\/p>\n Another state legislator, Sen. Wayne Fontana, introduced in 2024 a pair of bills that would prohibit the use of credit cards for online casino games and sports betting, and another that would restrict gambling companies from contacting Pennsylvanians who added their names to the state\u2019s betting self-exclusion list. <\/p>\n Neither advanced beyond the Senate\u2019s Community, Economic and Recreational Development Committee. <\/p>\n Fontana, who grew up in Pittsburgh during the 1950s and \u201960s, recalls having \u201ca bookie in every bar\u201d and coin-operated machines in pool halls for adults who were looking to get a gambling fix. <\/p>\n Not quite the stuff of Norman Rockwell, but quaint compared with the modern gambling industry\u2019s omnipresence in American culture. <\/p>\n \u201cYou see young people with their phones,\u201d the Democrat said, \u201cand they\u2019re betting on every little thing they can.\u201d <\/p>\n Fontana argues that the state should be reacting with more urgency to address the growing number of bettors whose lives are unraveling because of addiction. <\/p>\n A recent Pennsylvania State University report on online gambling found that as many as 6.4% of adults in the state are problem gamblers, a figure that would represent more than 667,000 people. <\/p>\n \u201cI hope it isn\u2019t just about how much money we\u2019re making,\u201d Fontana said of the state, which last year collected $2.9 billion in tax revenue from the gambling industry. \u201cWe still have an obligation to do the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Down the rabbit hole<\/p>\n Frank James, the CHOP psychiatrist, sees risk in many digital domains that children explore. <\/p>\n Social media platforms, prize-driven video games, and apps that mimic gambling each have the potential to reshape a young person\u2019s psyche. <\/p>\n \u201cAll of these things are connected to algorithms that surface whatever rabbit hole it brings you down,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are thousands of kids out there who have problems with gaming and social media.\u201d<\/p>\n As with the tobacco industry a generation ago, courtrooms are serving as a battleground to address harm. <\/p>\n In March, a New Mexico jury ordered Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to pay $375 million<\/a> for harming children\u2019s mental health and concealing its knowledge about child sexual exploitation on its apps, the Associated Press reported. <\/p>\n That same month, a Los Angeles jury ordered<\/a> Meta and Google to pay $6 million to a woman who attributed her struggles with depression and anxiety to having used the companies\u2019 products as a child. <\/p>\n Earlier this month, Meta, Google, and TikTok agreed to settle a lawsuit<\/a> they faced in Kentucky, where a school district had sued the companies over social media addiction among kids. The companies reportedly face more than 1,200 similar cases across the U.S. <\/p>\n Phil Waibel, a therapist who treats gambling addiction across Pennsylvania, said he has worked with 18- and 19-year-old patients who had already been gambling for years by the time they sought help. <\/p>\n Some of his patients described buying waterproof covers for their phones so that they could continue placing bets in the shower. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is the next opioid epidemic,\u201d Waibel said. \u201cIt\u2019s coming, and it\u2019s deadly serious.\u201d<\/p>\n Addiction is at the heart of a legal battle between the NCAA and Brendan Sorsby, a Texas Tech quarterback who is facing a permanent ban from college football for having admitted that he placed bets on Indiana University while playing for the school as a freshman. <\/p>\n Sorsby, who recently completed treatment for a gambling addiction, has sued the NCAA<\/a>. With the support of the university, he sought to be reinstated for the 2026 season, an appeal that the NCAA denied last week<\/a>. <\/p>\n The quarterback, a senior who stood to be paid more than $4 million by Texas Tech, has accused the NCAA of hypocrisy<\/a>, noting that the association licenses statistical information to Genius Sports, a data company that in turn supplies the figures to betting platforms. <\/p>\n Sorsby is not the only young adult whose life has been upended by a gambling addiction. <\/p>\n On Sept. 2, 2024, about 18,000 spectators watched a U.S. Open Women\u2019s Division tennis match between Jasmine Paolini and Karol\u00edna Muchov\u00e1 at Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens. <\/p>\n As the match neared an end, Paolini was in danger of losing. <\/p>\n Then, at 12:12 p.m., the U.S. Tennis Association received a direct message through Twitter. \u201cI\u2019m inside Louis Armstrong with a bomb that will go off at 1pm est,\u201d the message read. <\/p>\n Police and emergency personnel scrambled to search the stadium.<\/p>\n The sweep turned up no explosive devices. The tennis association had been the victim of a hoax. <\/p>\n Federal investigators began following a digital trail for the Twitter user who had submitted the threat and used the profile name @GetchiSoto. It led to similar accounts on other social media and gaming platforms \u2014 Instagram, Reddit, PlayStation, xBox \u2014 and sports betting sites as well. <\/p>\n The person behind the account and the bogus bomb threat proved to be an 18-year-old Lancaster resident named Aidan Getchius. <\/p>\n Getchius had placed a bet on Paolini to win the match, and sought to disrupt the match once it seemed Paolini might lose, according to federal court records.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that one person, through one impulsive and sinister text, can so easily inflict potential mass scale fear, disruption and damage demonstrates the seriousness of this case,\u201d Josh Davison, the assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case, wrote in a sentencing memo. <\/p>\n Yet Davison also wrote that Getchius, who is now 21, had otherwise been a law-abiding young adult, one whose actions had been \u201cheavily influenced by his sports gambling.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cThis addictive and costly habit led Getchius to lash out, lose control, and commit a reckless and thoughtless act with little to no appreciation of the consequences.\u201d <\/p>\n Getchius\u2019 attorney could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n In November, Getchius pleaded guilty to one count of conveying false information and hoaxes. He faced as much as five years in federal prison.<\/p>\n On May 21, U.S. District Judge John M. Gallagher sentenced Getchius to three years\u2019 probation, a $1,000 fine, and a $100 assessment. <\/p>\n Getchius\u2019 probation includes a handful of requirements, like submitting to occasional drug tests, undergoing a mental health evaluation, and sharing information about his income with a probation worker. <\/p>\n The judge tacked on an additional condition: For the next three years, Getchius is prohibited from placing a bet. <\/p>\n Staff writer William Bender contributed to this article. <\/p>\n The Inquirer will continue to report on issues related to the growth of gambling addiction \u2014 among teens and adults \u2014 across Pennsylvania. If you, or someone you know, wants to speak with a reporter, please contact David Gambacorta or William Bender at dgambacorta@inquirer.com<\/a> and wbender@inquirer.com<\/a><\/p>\n Acknowledgment<\/p>\n The Inquirer\u2019s journalism is supported, in part, by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism and readers like you. News and editorial content are created independently of The Inquirer\u2019s donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer\u2019s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com\/donate<\/a>. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org\/supporters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min He was just scrolling through TikTok, which overflowed with its usual distractions \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[163,85,46,522,523,218075],"class_list":["post-468999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-teen-gambling-prediction-games-addiction-signs-treatment-recovery-pennsylvania"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/circle_outline_footer_light_theme.png\"\/)
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