It was Match 5 in the finals of the Western 2018 conference, and the Houston Rockets sought to take the lead in a series linked with the Golden State Warriors. With just over a minute in the match, the Rockets goalkeeper Eric Gordon hit a clutch. Rockets wins, 98-94.
When Gordon scored, the room broke out in the house of the suburbs of Saul Malek in Houston. The victory was exhilarating for the 20 -year -old player of the time, a fan of rockets for life, but it was also terrifying. He joined his twin brother and father, jumping from the sofa and applauding.
When they were, he panicked.
He had bet $ 1,500 on the Warriors To earn, and he now owed money, he didn’t have his bookmaker. It would be the first of many times that he has gone in debt due to a dependence on the sports game that ruled his life for two years. At the lowest point, he remembers $ 25,000.
“My life was focused on the game. If I didn’t place a bet, I thought of the next one,” said Malek, now 27 years old.
Following the legalization of Sports Beting in 2018, 67% of all students are betting on games, according to a 2023 study of the Ncaa. Experts at stake believe that this number is probably even higher now, thanks to the prevalence of applications and an increasing market that has captivated more young people. It is a craze that swept through university campuses, and for some young people, this leads to complex and debilitating dependencies. The problem, according to experts in drug addiction, is largely misunderstood.
For young men, sports and games of chance are everywhere
For MalekThe bets have always been on invoking the same feeling that he had the first time that he won his fantastic college baseball league. Even as a pupil of sixth, the rush to prove his higher sports instincts – he drafted Matt Wieters to direct his 2009 fantastic league – was exhilarating.
After starting to lose money, he would block the Bookmaker number and go to a new online sports book. Rock Bottom arrived at 1 a.m. in winter 2019 during a school evening at Trinity University. He waited for his girlfriend to fall asleep and led two hours to the Casino Lucky Eagle near the border with Mexico, where he intended to pick up the money.
It only took him 15 minutes to go through the $ 400 in his pocket. On the return, he tried to convince himself that he had no problem.
Before sports betting were legalized, Heather Eshleman, head of prevention of Maryland Center of Excellence on the problematic game, obtained approximately three requests per year from educators asking for presentations on dependence on sports betting. Now she obtains secondary school teachers and university teachers three per month.
Over the past three years, the number 1-800 that its organization directed has seen a peak in calls from 18 to 20 years old, and calls from 21 to 25 years old have tripled.
The executive functioning of adolescents, the abstract skills of reflection and decision -making continue to develop Until the age of 25. There is a large deficit in the ability of young adults to deal with upper and lower playing, according to Dr. Timothy Fong, Codirector of the UCLA play study program.
“A brain (a teenager) has no control of pulses. He does not have the capacity to quickly recover from losses, ”explains Fong. “He knows, I want money, I want excitement, I want things my friends have. I want to prove that I am super cool for my friends. ”
Adolescents and young adults who play also often confuse success in the game with skills, according to Fong.
The Philadelphia Sports fan, Rob Minnick, now 26 years old and in recovery, says that it looked like “evidence” to make money by betting on the games he watched anyway with friends during the school. He won $ 8.38 per hour to collect ice cream, and the possibility of winning $ 100 on a Parlay was “breathtaking”.
“I had an understanding of the chances of the games, but I felt very confident that I would be the exception to the rule,” explains Minnick, who spends one day both (Odaat) on his YouTube channelwhere he published on his play recovery at 21,500 subscribers.
Jose Mendoza of Kansas City, Missouri, turned to sports betting at 23 to face the death of his father, a habit he hid for his family. The nights when his mother could not sleep from the weight of his sorrow, he was lying in his bed to comfort her while she was crying. She never knew he often placed the paralages on her phone while she was walking away.
“Of course, I told my friends what I won, but they say to themselves:” Well, how much did you put, how much did you lose? “” Mendoza, who is now 28 years old. “It’s always the botter.”
“ Everyone has a Paris binder in hand at any time, 24/7 ”
The decision of the 2018 Supreme Court transformed the regulations of betting to the States when it canceled the professional and amateur law of sports protection (PASPA), which prevented most of the States from authorizing betting. Today, sports betting are legal In 39 states and the Columbia district.
Then, the pivot of play platforms to sports betting – Draftings, Fanatics, Betmgm and dozens like them, each with incentives for new customers. Instead of brick and mortar casinos and physical sports books, anyone with a mobile phone could bet at any time.
Thirty-three states And the Columbia district authorizes sports betting on mobile applications and websites.
While sports betting in person decreased in 2024, mobile sports betting increased by around 50% and generated around $ 10.4 billion in revenues, according to the American Gaming Association.
“For years, I saw patients who have trouble going physically to the casino, driving 90 minutes or an hour,” explains Fong. “Many of these people I see now, they have never set foot in a casino. The only casino they have known is on their phone.”
Jordan, who began to bet at 15 and asked that we refuse his last name because of the sensitive nature of his experience, says he thought that sports betting was a habit of which he would grow. But when he went to a division 1 college and joined the Greek life, this alcohol made snowball.
The party, alcohol and sports betting went hand in hand. He could bet on everything: the over-henders, the accessories, who were going to hit the first home run.
“It is inevitable to hear other people talking about it,” said Jordan, now 25 years old.
“Everyone has a Paris notebook in hand at any time, 24/7,” added his father, Austin.
Minnick says that it is so omnipresent with the male college experience that it is the new excessive consumption of alcohol. Even if some young adults do not talk about Paris, they hear about it while watching major games thanks to the advertisements and the ratings of Paris being mentioned by advertisers.
“It has become so normalized that if you felt a game problem and you are a young man, you can not essentially watch the sport,” explains the old dutyicomane of game Sam Demello, now 38 years old. “I think it’s the biggest fear that prevents a lot from men from doing something about it.”
Dependence on sports betting faces stigma. For what?
Chemically, a dependence on the game works in the same way as a drug addiction, but many people see it wrongly as a moral failure or a lack of self -control, according to Cait Huble, of the National Council on the problematic game.
This false idea was the most difficult thing for Jordan’s father, Austin, to understand.
He and Jordan’s mother periodically bange their son in the high school. The conversation has often happened as follows: “Stop. It’s the last time. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”
When the problem evolved at the university, they realized that the question was deeper – and that they had allowed the dependence of their son without realizing it by reversing him with debt.
“The perception is that it is 70 -year -old guys who bet horses, sitting in a meeting (anonymous players),” explains Austin. “Sports betting, in particular, have transcended this profile.”
Demello says that space defenders must work to meet boys where they are. He founded Evive, an application of digital therapy specific to the game, to fill an age and technology gap. Based on Oregon, the health authorities of Oregon, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, Louisiana, Virginia and Nevada have joined forces with the application.
“Each person dependent on the game says:” If I hit the jackpot today, I bring back all the money I have lost in the last decade, and none of the harm is there, “explains Demello. “To put someone in abstinence, you have to kill this fantasy.”
Malek says that the lies he told his parents injured them “more than any money”. He started going to the anonymous players of players in 2018, but it was not until July 2019 that he stopped playing. With hindsight, he wants to have been more receptive to listen to recovered drug addicts. Malek says that it is a “regular process of change” that cannot be done solely on the will.
“I was so dead thinking that I could just understand things, that I was smarter than any kind of dependence or that I could beat the game,” said Malek. “Think that I don’t have all the answers was more useful than having the answers.”
For all those who seek to brake their sports betting, Eshleman recommends starting with self-exclusion methods, such as time and deposit limits to sports betting applications. Self-exclusion widgets like Gamban, Betblocker and Gamblock can block access to accounts for a defined period.
Minnick says that young men can play in a responsible manner, but should be aware of their motivations. On his platform, he recommends that players make sure that they are not only playing out of habit.
“If you have no reason, it’s an alarm bell,” said Minnick. “There have been several times during the six years I played when I stopped and I honestly wondered:” Why did you do that? “I would have reached the conclusion much earlier than I had a problem.”
Young adults with the responsible game can send SMS or call National problem game lattery 24 hours a day at 1-800-gamber or find a Anonymous gamblers meeting.
The role of Rachel Hale covering the mental health of young people in USA Today is supported by a partnership with Pivotal Ventures and journalism Funding Partners. Donors do not provide editorial contribution. Touch it rhale@usatuday.com And @Rachelleighhale on X.