Holiday football and the rise of teen betting
My family, like millions of American households, is spending much of this Thanksgiving weekend watching football.
But while we’re enjoying the traditional spectacle, the holiday has become a day of massive financial losses due to gambling.
Thanksgiving NFL games rank in the top 20% of those most bet on throughout entire football season, sportsbook apps report, playoffs included.
Even while Americans gather with family during the holidays, many adults can’t resist the lure of online sports betting — and alarmingly, neither can America’s teenagers.
Over the past two years, I’ve watched scores of male peers transform from football fans into day traders.
My friend Evan lost every dollar of his summer earnings one Thanksgiving weekend.
Another dropped thousands during the holiday, burning through his Bar Mitzvah savings.
Why teens are especially vulnerable
Teens are much more prone to developing a gambling addiction than adults are.
“The way teenagers’ brains develop,” says gambling counselor Marc Lefkowitz, “the accelerator develops before the brakes.”
A National Institutes of Health study linked teen gambling to criminal behavior, delinquency, poor academic outcomes and other harms.
The apps that hook us mimic the dopamine hits of video games — and they replace the joy of fan culture with the darkness of gambling addiction.
From casinos to phones: gambling everywhere
But the real innovation has been their easy access.
Gambling once meant a trip to a casino — if you were old enough — with cash in hand, a physical act you had to commit to.
Now sports bets happen on our phones.
We wake up with a casino next to our beds and carry it in our pockets all day.
We can place minute-to-minute bets during games, like which Thanksgiving starting quarterback will have the most passing yards, or whether Kelce, Chase or Lamb will score a touchdown.
FanDuel makes it easy, repeatedly notifying us to bet on its “Thanksgiving Specials.”
Betting apps as social currency
Among teens, pro sports watch parties have become BYOB — but the “B” stands for “Betting Apps.”
You don’t need a sportsbook account to get in, but without one you’re iced out of the camaraderie.
From the moment they arrive, teenagers are checking FanDuel, DraftKings and PrizePicks for last-second promos and boosters.
There’s always a kid who knows nothing about football but pressed his dad to open an account and fund him for the day.
Most apps don’t allow access for those under 21, but there are plenty of workarounds, and for prediction markets — the new craze at high schools — you only have to be 18.
Digital life grooming teens to gamble
The betting apps feel like an extension of the digital gamification of everything else on our phones.
“This generation has been groomed to gamble since childhood, with randomized reward systems in video games nudging them to spend real money for a chance at winning big,” explains Isaac Rose-Berman, a gambling policy analyst at the American Institute for Boys and Men.
“They’ve been trained by digital life and social media to crave immediate rewards, making the delayed gratification of watching a game feel unbearable without money on it.”
A recent survey commissioned by Behind The Bet, a sports gambling awareness organization I founded, revealed that 82% of teenage boys say it’s easy to place a sports bet.
And 88% say they see a sports betting ad at least once a day across all media, including in their social feeds.
For many adolescent sports fans, online gambling has been successfully rebranded as just another form of sports entertainment — inseparable from the game itself.
Steps to reduce the harm
It’s time to take urgent action.
First, we should rein in gambling ads.
Too many of the current stars we look up to — LeBron James, Connor McDavid, Kevin Durant — egg us on while we’re watching games, telling us it’s a good idea to gamble.
Some jurisdictions outside the United States have banned current athletes from serving as gambling pitchmen; we should follow their lead.
In-game betting is especially addictive, transforming the entire fan experience into flash trading on our phones. States should put a stop to it.
User authentication systems that promise to keep teens from betting are clearly not sufficient: Sports betting apps should use biometrics to deny underage users the ability to place bets.
And education is a must: Most high schools in New York City and elsewhere tell us about the risks of alcohol, drugs and vaping — but give us virtually no guidance on gambling addiction.
Schools shouldn’t wait for mandates from city or state governments, but take it upon themselves to bring in experts to educate students about gambling’s dangers.
The warning signs are everywhere, from empty bank accounts to the kid staring dazedly at his phone while a blowout unfolds.
Too many adolescent sports fans are becoming gambling addicts before they’re old enough to vote.
Eli Senor, a high school senior, is the founder of Behind The Bet, which raises awareness of the risks of teen sports gambling.
_800x800.webp)
