Forget Chiefs and Eagles. Super Bowl 59’s biggest winners will be sports betting operations.

Americans will shell out an eye-popping $1.39 billion on Sunday, the American Gaming Association (AGA) predicts, outstripping last year’s $1.25 billion record.

A national survey from Lending Tree indicates more than half of all male respondents, and 66% of Gen Z respondents, plan to bet on the big game. Of those, 63% plan to use an online sports book.

The Daily Citizen has previously reported on the risks online gambling and sports betting pose to families and kids. This year, we asked Les Bernal to weigh in on the gambling industry’s predatory business model, its fixation on young people, and what parents can do to keep their kids from getting hooked.

Bernal is the National Director of Stop Predatory Gambling, a non-profit and advocacy network dedicated to exposing commercial gambling’s effect on communities and families.

“Predatory gambling is America’s most neglected major problem,” he tells the Daily Citizen. “It affects everybody [in a profound way], regardless of whether you gamble or not.”

Bernal defines predatory gambling as any business with a “house” designed to make a profit:

When gambling is used as a business, there is a predatory and adversarial relationship between the gambling operator and its customer. That’s how they make their money. It’s the only business in the world where the business owner or the business operator is trying to hurt you.

Gambling operators have always endeavored to keep the high-rollers paying big bucks. But unlike brick-and-mortar operations, online casinos and sports books can use data analytics to find their preferred victims — gambling addicts.

“The number one indicator of an addictive gambler, or someone who could become [one], is chasing losses,” says Bernal. “By that, I mean, gambling another hundred bucks to recoup the $100 you already lost that day.”

Online betting groups make most of their money by finding and exploiting these users. Bernal references a Wall Street Journal article finding one online sports book, PointsBet, made 70% of its 2019-2020 profit on bets from just 0.5% of its customers.

The article follows the story of Kavita Fischer, a psychiatrist and mother who became addicted to apps like PointsBet and DraftKings. Though she tried to quit multiple times, special “VIP-customer representatives” used gifts and bonus tokens to keep her coming back.  

“With a real-time view of a customer’s gambling activity, VIP hosts keep in close touch,” the Journal writes. “They track when customers last used the app and offer credits and other incentives to persuade their most valuable gamblers — by definition, the biggest losers — to return.”

Like all addictive products, says Bernal, gambling poses elevated risk to kids. But the gambling industry intentionally markets itself to young people by cozying up to sports.

Bernal uses Fanatics, the sports merchandise company, as an example:

[Fanatics] made their money in sports gambling. So you have kids wearing Fanatics hats, collecting Fanatics sports cards, and getting used to the brand.

When they turn 18, the company starts transitioning them over to these gambling apps. It’s a pipeline to addiction.

Consequently, sports games and advertisements make gambling seem like a requirement:

What they’re doing is squeezing the sports around gambling. The marketing makes it appear that you’re no longer a sports fan unless you’re betting on something.

The intimate consequences of gambling addiction are brutal and cascading, says Bernal, but few people understand the cost it exerts on all American families. Taxpayers foot the bill for the social and economic ripple effects of one person’s missteps, from unemployment benefits to the cost of keeping someone in prison.

“You the taxpayer, long term, end up paying higher taxes for fewer services because of all these forms of hardcore gambling the state promotes,” he points out. “You pay even if you don’t play.”

Sunday’s game will be filled with invitations to gamble. Bernal says there are two ways parents can protect their kids — beyond refusing to gamble themselves.

The first is adding predatory gambling to the list of “dangerous, addictive products,” like smoking, vaping and drugs, to warn kids against.

The second is supporting online gambling reform at the ballot box.

“This needs to be a top issue for every parent in America,” Bernal contends. “We must demand reform that protects kids from predatory gambling interests.”

He puts it in perspective:

We don’t allow Purdue Pharma, the opioid maker, to market to kids. That’s how addictive [gambling] is, and we’re allowing the gambling industry to market these hardcore products in the middle of the day, exposing kids to them.

This Super Bowl Sunday, take Bernal’s advice and stay off the gambling apps. They’re not worth your time, your money or your kids’ wellbeing.

Additional Articles and Resources

Online Sports Betting Hooking Young Men on Gambling, Research Suggests

Online Super Bowl Betting Breaks Records