The Lo-Down: Gambling is more popular but still harmful

If someone were to turn on an NFL broadcast, he or she would be flooded with promotional content for gambling. He or she would see broadcasters giving their takes on the best value bets, ads on the score bug or in the stadiums and countless commercials. All of it aims to market the fun of gambling as a casual consumer’s hobby. That sucks.

Take something like marijuana for example. There are harmful effects to the casual usage of it, including lung damage and an increased risk of several health conditions. Still, the difference is simple: the effects of marijuana are the same regardless of class while access is vastly different. The inverse is true for gambling. Almost anybody, typically as long as they’re over 18 or 21 years old, can create an account on one of the numerous gambling platforms pedaled to them constantly.

In April 2023, most of the major sports leagues and a handful of media companies banded together to rally for responsible gambling advertisements. The formation of the alliance was in response to the nationwide legalization of sports gambling, and while the effort was necessary, it still seems as though the definition of “responsible gambling advertisements” needs to be refined.

In 2023, Americans wagered $119.84 billion on sports, a record up 27.5% from the 2022 total. The median yearly income in the U.S., as of 2022, was $37,585, meaning it would take 3.19 million Americans, just under 10% of the U.S. population, earning a median salary to spend the total wagered amount.

This number becomes more believable when celebrities like Drake, who has a reported net worth of $250 million, post their wagers on sports. Drake has a partnership with gambling platform, Stake, and thus is encouraged to post his egregious wagers publicly. On Aug. 17, Drake posted a $450,000 wager to his Instagram betting on Israel Adesanya to win a middleweight title fight against Dricus Du Plessis.

Adesanya would lose by submission, and while the $450,000 Drake lost ultimately meant nothing to him, he essentially encouraged his audience to follow him down the pit, throwing money at something that would never come to fruition.

From 2018 to 2023, the most common sports betting wager ranged from $10 to $25, with only 10% of betters willing to go over $250. The wagers that celebrities like Drake consistently wave around are no big deal to their bottomless pockets, but still present as unfathomable to the average American.

The surface-level issues with gambling are immense, and the required ‘1-800-GAMBLER’ addition on ads is no more than a bandage on a bullet hole. It has been proven that gambling addiction, which is being pedaled as a gambling “hobby” or a pastime, can cause issues with relationships, finances, mental health, job stability and more. It is a problem, and any other term is not severe enough.

The root of the issue is that gambling as a hobby is only truly accessible to those with mass amounts of disposable income, i.e. the American one percent. However, the ugliest part of it all is that, despite supposed efforts to promote responsible gambling from sports leagues and media companies, there is no such thing as a responsible gambling hobby for the average American.

Logan Adams is a junior studying journalism. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Want to talk more about it? Let Logan know by tweeting him @LoganPAdams.