Before picking up serious sports betting in 2023, Jason said he had, through a combination of cheap rent, smart investments and a lot of overtime, squirreled away nearly $100,000. Now, his savings hover somewhere around $5,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll ever really be able to stop gambling,\u201d said Jason, who asked the Miami Herald to only use his first name to protect his privacy as he looks for a new job.<\/p>\n
But he wishes he could. It\u2019s derailing his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so far financially back behind my peers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling reported a 138% increase in calls to its helpline between 2023 \u2014 when Florida\u2019s legal online sportsbook, Hard Rock Bet, launched \u2014 and 2025. And those callers are increasingly young \u2014 18- to 25-year-olds now account for 41% of the helpline\u2019s calls, up more than 10 percentage points from 2023.<\/p>\n
In the past, would-be bettors had to go to a casino or racetrack, or find a bookie. They might\u2019ve taken out cash, held in their hands the money they were about to spend.<\/p>\n
But the Supreme Court overturned a federal ban on sports betting in 2018, leaving states to decide whether and how to legalize sports gambling.<\/p>\n
Florida opened the door three years later.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith online sports betting, it seems like the addiction comes on rather fast,\u201d said Janet Gerner, a South Florida-based therapist who specializes in gambling addiction. She said her patients often \u201cend up in a trance,\u201d swiping on bets as if they were scrolling social media \u2014 frictionless gambling on a device that for many is already a borderline prosthetic extension.<\/p>\n
For gamblers, especially younger ones who are just starting to earn and build the savings that will undergird their retirements, that can mean life-altering losses of wealth and financial stability.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s young men, particularly those from 18 to mid-20s, who are at heightened risk of developing gambling addictions.<\/p>\n
\u201cYoung men are more prone to risky behavior \u2014 full stop,\u201d said Jonathan Cohen, sports-betting policy lead at the American Institute for Boys and Men. \u201cThey\u2019re biologically primed for it, not to mention they\u2019re already sports fans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Plus, he added, more and more of those young men are beset by a sort of financial nihilism<\/a> \u2014 the feeling that whatever money they are able to make and save through more traditional avenues, like a steady job, won\u2019t be enough to achieve major economic milestones.<\/p>\n \u201cImagine you have $10,000 in the bank,\u201d Cohen said. \u201cThat\u2019s not enough to buy a house. It\u2019s not enough to pay off your student loans, and it\u2019s not enough to start a business.\u201d<\/p>\n But it is enough cash to spread across hundreds of moonshot bets that could theoretically pay off big.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re performing at the lower end of the labor market,\u201d said Cohen, \u201cso might as well sort of pursue the American Dream through the only way that you can see available.\u201d<\/p>\n Jason could relate. Soon after he started gambling online, he hit a hot streak \u2014 \u201cthe worst thing that can happen to a gambler,\u201d he reflected \u2014 and made north of $20,000 in a month.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m thinking, like, why am I even working these jobs where I\u2019m making $19 an hour when I can just, you know, bet $5,000 on a ping-pong game and make $2,000 in half an hour?\u201d<\/p>\n Jason lost almost all of his savings of nearly $100,000 since he picked up sports betting on Hard Rocks sportsbook, the only one thats legal in Florida. <\/p>\n (AL DIAZ\/TNS)<\/p>\n Hooked \u2018Instantly\u2019 Two years later, Florida\u2019s mobile sports betting application, Hard Rock Bet, hit the market for good.<\/p>\n Jason downloaded it soon after.<\/p>\n What he entered was a relatively unguarded \u2014 and, as he described it, \u201cpredatory\u201d \u2014 gambling ecosystem.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s not a lot of restrictions on sports betting in Florida,\u201d said Jennifer Kruse, executive director of the Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling. \u201cAnd the costs are not just to the gambler themselves \u2014 they\u2019re to everyone: to family members, friends, society.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the state\u2019s making money. Florida takes 13.75% of the Seminole Tribe\u2019s net winnings from sports betting, which, for this fiscal year, are estimated<\/a> to top $2.6 billion. Florida\u2019s cut is a projected $359 million \u2014 $55 million more than the state netted<\/a> last year from taxes on alcohol.<\/p>\n Hard Rock Digital, which declined to comment for this story, does not publish data on the problem gambling activity of its users, and Florida has not commissioned a comprehensive study of gambling addiction in more than a decade.<\/p>\n But data from other states that have legalized online sports gambling \u2014 as well as the surge in calls to Florida\u2019s problem gambling helpline \u2014 suggests that gambling addiction is a greater problem than is publicly understood, and that it\u2019s metastasizing fast.<\/p>\n Research from the\u00a0UCLA Anderson School of Management<\/a> found that within two years of legalizing online gambling, states that did so saw, on average, a 28% increase in bankruptcy likelihood among their residents and an 8% increase in debt collection amounts.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not hard to fathom that increased access to online betting would lead to higher rates of gambling addiction. After all, betting companies make money when people use their apps, which \u201care designed to be as addictive as possible,\u201d said Nicholas Reville, cofounder and executive director of the nonprofit Center for Addiction Science, Policy, and Research.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s some portion of the population when they\u2019re exposed to these apps \u2026 they are going to become addicted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Jason, who\u2019s no stranger to addiction, was part of that group. As a teen, he fell into a drug-curious crowd, and it wasn\u2019t until years later, in early 2019, that he finally kicked his heroin problem.<\/p>\n Newly clean, he got a job at a rehab facility, helping others who were in the thick of what he had just gone through. His coworkers were all sober, and that helped with his sobriety. But they gambled, so he did too.<\/p>\n The money started to give his sports-watching experience a little kick. \u201cI genuinely love watching sports,\u201d he said, \u201cand when I add some money on top of it, it\u2019s, like, multiplicative in the excitement and emotion.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2023, a colleague approached Jason at work, his phone open to the newly launched<\/a> Hard Rock Bet app.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s like, \u2018Check this out \u2014 if you lose your first bet, you get $100 back,\u2019\u201d Jason recalled. He was referring to the \u201cbonus bets\u201d that sites offer to entice gamblers; you upload your own money, and the site will match it with some amount of in-app cash \u2014 unwithdrawable funds that can only be spent betting on their platform.<\/p>\n Jason put $100 down. He lost. He did it again, this time with the $100 bonus bet Hard Rock had given him. He lost again. \u201cI got so pissed, I immediately just started throwing all this money at it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt got me instantly.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018No Boundaries\u2019 \u201cThere are no boundaries anymore,\u201d said Gerner, the South Florida therapist.<\/p>\n Since online sports gambling\u2019s rollout in Florida, she reports seeing more young men in more debt than ever before.<\/p>\n For Jason, the friction of traveling to a casino and physically putting down money makes all the difference. \u201cI can walk away when it\u2019s in person,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a much different mentality than losing your life savings on your couch.\u201d<\/p>\n The removal of such barriers broadens exposure to online betting, said Kruse of the Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling.<\/p>\n And while some of that exposure is from word of mouth, much of it comes from ads. Social media users, television watchers, highway drivers \u2014 most Americans, really, have been exposed at one point or another to a betting ad.<\/p>\n And those spots follow a familiar recipe: warm light<\/a> \u2014 it\u2019s always sunny when you\u2019re betting \u2014 vibrant colors, smiles, phones in hand with wagers at the ready. Some mention of bonus bets<\/a> that whiffs of free money. Perhaps a celebrity<\/a> or two or five<\/a>.<\/p>\n The message? \u201cMake money on what you know \u2014 it\u2019s a skill-based activity,\u201d said Dr. Timothy Fong, a professor of psychiatry who co-directs UCLA\u2019s Gambling Studies Program. \u201cAnd those things are completely false, completely baloney.\u201d<\/p>\n The advertising doesn\u2019t stop once you\u2019re in. If you\u2019re like Jason, and you shell out enough money, at least on Hard Rock Bet, you might be assigned a \u201cVIP Account Manager,\u201d also known as a host.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re running a big promotion,\u201d one of Jason\u2019s Hard Rock Bet hosts, Vincent, texted him in 2024. \u201cIf you deposit 10k you\u2019ll get 1k back in bonus bet.\u201d<\/p>\n Jason didn\u2019t take Vincent up on the offer. But he did say he accepted comped hotel rooms at Hard Rock casinos, tickets to football and basketball games, and concert seats \u2014 all arranged through the VIP hosts he drew through the sheer volume of his gambling, before he was banned from the app in 2024 over a banking dispute.<\/p>\n \u201cThe [casino] always makes their money back,\u201d he said of the perks. \u201cThey\u2019re just placating me.\u201d<\/p>\n State regulations do little to protect problem gamblers like Jason from falling into addiction and losing much, if not all, of their money.<\/p>\n Florida\u2019s framework for regulating online gambling ranks among the five weakest in the country, according to a 2024 National Council on Problem Gambling report. Only 11 of the council\u2019s 82 recommended policies are explicitly referenced in the 2021 Gaming Compact, the legal structure governing online betting in Florida.<\/p>\n In its own ranking of states\u2019 online gambling regulations, the Center for Addiction Science, Policy and Research gave Florida a 49\/100 \u2014 an \u201cF\u201d grade.<\/p>\n Florida\u2019s most meaningful protections typically kick in after someone\u2019s gambling has already become a problem and therefore are \u201ctotally ineffective\u201d from a prevention standpoint, said Reville, CASPR\u2019s executive director.<\/p>\n \u201cCalling a hotline after you\u2019ve lost all your money, going to gambling counseling after you have a divorce and lost your home \u2014 these are things you do after [the casinos] have taken all your money,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to intervene before people lose everything.\u201d<\/p>\n State-mandated bet or loss limits \u2014 restrictions on how much money someone can wager or lose in a period of time before their account is temporarily locked \u2014 could prevent devastating losses and introduce enough friction to help brake someone\u2019s slide into addiction, he said.<\/p>\n Banning in-game micro-bets \u2014 a torrent of wagers on the outcome of specific plays, which are basically akin to roulette spins \u2014 could do preventative wonders, said Reville.<\/p>\n Massachusetts is debating a bill<\/a> that would outlaw such bets, as well as ban sports-betting ads during televised sports games, impose daily betting limits for most gamblers and more than double the tax rate that sportsbooks pay on their net wins.<\/p>\n Asked whether the governor would support additional consumer protections, DeSantis\u2019 office referred the Herald to the Florida Gaming Control Commission, which did not respond to multiple requests for comment.<\/p>\n The Cost of Inaction Kate \u2014 who asked to be identified by her middle name \u2014 only found out the extent of her husband\u2019s online sports betting addiction last month. They had been thinking about having a baby. That\u2019s on ice for the foreseeable future, at least until Jason\u2019s gambling is under control.<\/p>\n She says she doesn\u2019t think people take gambling addiction seriously, and she doesn\u2019t get why. Maybe it\u2019s because the data on problem gambling is limited.<\/p>\n Florida hasn\u2019t conducted a thorough, statewide study of gambling addiction since 2011, a decade before online sports betting was even legalized.<\/p>\n But other states have.<\/p>\n In 2022, 6.3% of Oklahomans met the criteria for gambling disorder, while 24% were considered \u201cat risk,\u201d according to the Oklahoma Association on Problem Gambling and Gaming.<\/p>\n In Maryland, nearly 6% of residents exhibit disordered gambling behavior, up from 4% two years prior, a 2024 study backed by the Maryland Department of Health found. That\u2019s well above the 2% of Florida adults who were last recorded 15 years ago as exhibiting problem gambling symptoms.<\/p>\n Both states scored higher than Florida on CASPR\u2019s online gambling regulatory rankings, and in Oklahoma, online sports gambling isn\u2019t even legal.<\/p>\n Kate doesn\u2019t need any extra data to grasp the threat posed by unfettered online betting.<\/p>\n Though she makes good money \u2014 more than $100,000 a year as an accountant \u2014 \u201ceverything\u2019s expensive,\u201d and even before Jason\u2019s gambling problem surfaced, she had been concerned about whether she\u2019d have enough of a nest egg to retire comfortably.<\/p>\n More than anything, though, she\u2019s mourning the marriage she had hoped for. \u201cWhen I got married, it was like, everything is one. We\u2019re in it together. What\u2019s mine is yours, what\u2019s yours is mine.\u201d Now she\u2019s contending with the fear that her husband, in a tilted fit, might drain their savings.<\/p>\n \u201cAll that I\u2019ve worked for, worked really hard for, like, I want to be able to trust him with it, that he\u2019s not going to just go through it,\u201d she said as she sat with Jason at a caf\u00e9 on a recent evening.<\/p>\n \u201cI never expected marriage to \u2026\u201d she trailed off, looking at Jason, who was fiddling with his wedding ring. \u201cI don\u2019t know, like, I don\u2019t want to say \u2018divorce,\u2019 but I also cannot do this forever.\u201d<\/p>\n Forever\u2019s a long time, and Jason doesn\u2019t know if he can kick gambling for that long.<\/p>\n \u201cI could stop doing heroin. I can confidently say I will never do heroin again. But gambling \u2026 \u201d He looked across the table at his wife.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n Problem gambling? Here\u2019s where to find help<\/p>\n This story was produced with financial support from supporters including The Green Family Foundation Trust and Ken O\u2019Keefe, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.<\/p>\n \u00a92026 Miami Herald. Visit miamiherald.com<\/a>. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jason was hiding in a closet at work, glued to his phone. He was going \u201cfull tilt.\u201d In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-230324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"US-NEWS-FLORIDA-ITS-EASIER-THAN-EVER-2-MI.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/erepublic.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/b7f35f0\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/1140x1681+0+0\/resize\/840x1239!\/quality\/90\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Ferepublic-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fc5%2F97%2Ff0200cc24735b1a58aece74020f7%2F20260412-amx-us-news-florida-its-easier-than-ever-2-mi.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Florida embraced online sports betting in 2021, when Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Seminole Tribe inked the Gaming Compact<\/a>, an accord that granted the tribe a monopoly on sportsbooks in the state through July 2051.<\/p>\n
If you move beyond small talk with a gambling policy expert, you\u2019re likely to hear the term \u201cfriction,\u201d which essentially refers to any barrier to gambling.<\/p>\n
Protections or no, Kate, Jason\u2019s wife, doesn\u2019t think online sports gambling should be legal at all.<\/p>\n