When asked what makes sports gambling exciting, an anonymous Troy High School student who will be referred to as source A said, “If Jameson Williams is going to score and you’re going to win 1000 dollars, it’s another level.”
Source A has been gambling for two years, using his mom’s credit card to set up an account on the betting app FanDuel. When asked how he heard about the app, he said, “I saw a lot of ads on TikTok and thought, why not?”
In 2019, the lawful sports betting act was passed which allowed people to start betting on professional sports. However, the legal gambling age in Michigan was unchanged, and is still 18 today. When this happened, apps like DraftKings and Fanduel opened to the public.
When asked about mobile apps similarities to gambling, Keellia Guevara, a Gambling Prevention Specialist, said on KMTV Omaha “‘That very, very clearly mirrors that same response that’s going on in a gambler’s mind when they’re at a slot machine. It’s that I want to keep playing because maybe the next button, maybe the next play, maybe the next bet, maybe the next card is going to be the one that wins.’”
When asked about what betting habits he currently has, Source A said he now just bets on football and will “only put ten dollars in every week.” However, Source A’s tendency to bet low amounts of money wasn’t always the case, as he used to make a lot of these small bets.
Source A said that to get even, he bet low amounts on a variety of non-mainstream sports. He said he “was even putting money on Valorant and Overwatch.”
When asked why people begin to bet on more obscure sports, Source A said, “I think those crazy betting things are a testament to show how far people will go to gamble.”
Another anonymous Troy High School student we will refer to as Source B reveals that before he started doing sports gambling that he’d “never watched a women’s golf game in my life, and look at me now,” showing how far he’d been willing to go to bet. He even went on to admit that he “bet on basement fighting once, my friends go in the basement and yeah.” Source B refused to elaborate on the basement fighting he bets on.
When asked if he thinks he is addicted to sports gambling, Source A made it clear that he is not, stating, “No, I could stop if I need to, but I don’t.”
When asked if he thinks sports gambling is problematic, he responded, “I think that any addiction can lead to problems down the road, and some people are really addicted.”
When asked if he would realistically be able to quit, Source B said, “No, probably not.” However, he stated that he could quit if there was a gun to his mother’s head.
The amount of money he spends on sports betting is “about 400 dollars a month” and he will “usually break even.”
When asked again why he bets, Source B said, “It’s fun bro, it’s like a high.” Continuing to say that, “We all have a gambling problem inside of us, we just gotta find it.”
In terms of how companies have learned to unlock that problem in minors, specifically boys, the book, “The Anxious Generation,” has stated that, “Games also instituted pay-to-progress options- business decisions that tapped players’ wallets directly- and got kids hooked.” The book even went on to state that, “In the early 2010’s, adolescents with smartphones became available to companies at every waking moment.”
Source B, when asked if there was a culture around gambling with people he knows, he said, “Yeah, we have a group chat and they say bet on this one, bet on that one.”
According to The National Collegiate Athletics Association, 58% of 18-22 year olds had placed at least one wager in 2023. Source A agreed that the nationwide legalization of gambling nearly six years ago has affected Troy, going on to say “betting apps made it easier for me to do it, and I’m not alone.”
In terms of the effects that social media has on promoting gambling, Source A admitted that, “I don’t think I would’ve started as young as I did if I didn’t see so many people pushing it.”
