This episode originally aired Sept. 23, 2024.

You might say online gambling has been on a winning streak since a Supreme Court decision in 2018 cleared the way for states to allow sports betting.

It’s now legal in 30 states and its influence is hard to miss: Online sportsbook companies like DraftKings and FanDuel are on billboards, commercials even college campuses, many of which have made deals with sports betting companies.

Three out of four college students gambled last year according to the National Council on Problem Gambling, and online betting sites are increasingly targeting young people.

Yanely Espinal, host of Marketplace’s “Financially Inclined” podcast, recently covered this topic on her show, and she explained to Marketplace’s Meghan McCarty Carino how online betting companies are reeling in younger users.

The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.

Yanely Espinal: So that’s where I think it’s most interesting and a little bit scary, because the physical space where people are going to see sports, especially young people with their friends, it’s like these physical spaces where the ads are popping up constantly. They’re around you, they’re always on TV and in commercials. And so, I think it’s getting more and more and more prevalent over recent years than really ever before.

Meghan McCarty Carino: The last time you were on the show, we talked about “dark patterns,” these kinds of user designs that are intended to manipulate people into giving up something that they might not have otherwise, like their time or their money. That feels relevant here. How are these gambling apps integrating dark patterns?

Espinal: Yeah, the tools that they’re using are almost identical. Like, you see when you scroll and something pops up right away, it’s like a treat, like a reward. And so, there’s a lot of pop ups. There’s a lot of rewards coming up, you spin this wheel to see what you get today. Or a notification will come up on your phone when you’re not even in the app, you click that notification, and even though you weren’t even thinking about it, you’re back in the app again. And then there’s all these rewards and things like if you sign up, you get a $40 credit, or they’ll send it to you once a month to start using it. That’s the kind of stuff that is designed to get you hooked. And so, I think that the danger of a lot of that stuff is that, if you’re a 45 year old, 55 year old person, you’ve had decades of experience resisting things, you know, pushing up in front of you on computers and phones or as you walk around your community and see stores pushing things in sales. You have some more experience, and you’ve got a different kind of brain to be able to fight that urge and resist but when you’re a teenager, the brain is a little more easily manipulated. That’s why I think this is especially dangerous when you are 17 or 18 years old.

McCarty Carino: A lot of these sports gambling platforms are pretty aggressive in terms of courting new users. They’re running promotions where they give you your first bet for free. What’s going on with that?

Espinal: Yeah, so actually, that is one of the things I was curious about, because I have a brother who gets into gambling a little, and I notice a lot of times he gets enticed by these new, “free” bets where they say you don’t have to pay, we’re going to give you the credit to bet. And that is usually a way that he gets tricked. And so, I asked the guest that I had on “Financially Inclined” about this. His name is Danny Funt and he’s been reporting on this for a while at the Washington Post. He talked specifically about sports betting, and he said that this is something that is especially important to be cautious about, because it’s really easy to fall prey to these promotions. This is what he said:

Danny Funt: Just think about the fact that they’re giving you that money on the front end because they know they’ll make it back and then some on the back end. It’s kind of like putting out bait on a fishing line and hoping someone’s going to bite into it. Treat that with caution.

Espinal: As he said, it’s like bait. That was such a cool visual for students to understand. You’re just swimming along, you think everything’s all good, and oh look at this little free reward, and then suddenly they’ve got you and now you’re hooked, and you literally cannot stop that itch. That’s kind of where I think the first early signs of the real problem start to begin.

McCarty Carino: You found that these kinds of gambling-like manipulations are actually showing up a lot in mobile games for kids now, right?

Espinal: Yeah. So, Danny mentioned that if you look at some of the kids’ games, you actually see a lot of the same features that you would see like in a casino, which is wild, because why are you showing that to a little child, like an eight-year-old playing games on a phone?  To me, it’s insane. But he said there are similarities with thing things like ticking clocks. You know, you have 15 seconds to get to the next level, to claim the prize, or to open the treasure chest, and that ticking clock is like that time pressure. And these are the same types of things that we’re seeing in other in, grown adult interface apps and stuff. So, I think the technology is really tricky.

One of the ones for me that was a problem, because I’ve actually seen it with my nieces and nephews, is the spinning wheel. They’ll get on these games and it’s like a spinning wheel to see, what should you play today or what color should the princess wear today and I’m like, what is that spinning wheel? It looks like a roulette machine or like a like a slot machine. And then that just gets them into this mindset of “I can’t wait to see, I don’t know what it’s going to be, and I can’t wait to find out.” And that is actually what makes, I think, a lot of people get addicted to gambling. It’s the thrill of not knowing, the waiting and finding out. And so just starting to expose kids to these manipulative design features that keep kids playing longer, or maybe even begging mom and dad to buy things, that is so problematic.

McCarty Carino: How much are you seeing this kind of stuff affecting young people and teens?

Espinal: I’ve only seen little signs of it myself when I talk to students that have concerned me, but when I started reading about it, and I started seeing how many younger and younger people are reporting that they need help with this, that’s what started to scare me. And in my own family, I’ve seen my younger brother now spend a lot of years struggling with this and until he had a kid and life got real for him, he didn’t realize how serious it was and that he needed to stop. If you’re using diaper money to go and place a bet, bro, you have a problem. He and I had to have a real heart to heart. And I think that’s happening with so many young guys. And I think for me, the fact that it’s starting to not be seen as a problem, because it’s like, it’s legal. These guys can say “I’m not doing anything bad, I’m not committing crimes out here”, you know, and that, to me, is the very dangerous shift.

McCarty Carino: What experts that you talked to say about how to recognize when someone has an actual gambling addiction?

Espinal: This was actually, for me, a big insight. I’m a personal finance nerd, like, I talk about financial education all the time in my life, on social media, at my work, and so for me, I always thought you kind of look at your budget and you’re like, all right, I got $20 extra this week, I’m going to go ahead and place a $20 bet. Like, it’s just a treat for myself as my extra money. But it’s not that. It’s not a budgeting thing. It’s not a mathematical thing. And Danny Funt told me it actually has very little to do with money and a lot of people actually do spend outside of their budget when they get addicted. This is a mental health problem. People may need to actually go to therapy. This is not the type of thing where you just need to sit down and get somebody to help you with your finances and to How teenagers can get hooked on sports bettinglook at your budget and clean up your budget because you’re spending too much on these apps. You actually have to go to therapy because you have an addiction, and you have to work through what’s happening in your brain and how your brain has changed and try to reclaim it back and get it back to how it was before. So that, to me, was a really insightful. This is more of a mental health issue than anything else.

McCarty Carino: So if someone thinks they might have a problem, or see someone else in their life they think might have a problem with this stuff. What kinds of resources are available? Where should they go?

Espinal: Anybody can reach out to 1-800-GAMBLER, which is a hotline that anybody can call and just say, “hey I I’m having a problem” or “I have a friend that I noticed is having a problem, I just want to talk to you, and I want to see what I can do and get help” and it’s free. They also have some state-based hotlines as well. So, you could also just go online and do a web search for the name of your state and the gambling hotline and see what gambling hotlines for your state exist. And then, if not, of course, just go with the national one. And then there’s also the National Council on Problem Gambling, and they have a great site where you can go on and look at state-based resources, including hotlines you can call. So, I think the biggest thing there is to notice that you have to talk to somebody. And the hardest thing, I think, is admitting that you have a problem like. And that’s what’s good, I think, about teenagers. They’re so honest. They’re on their phones all the time, using all kinds of tech but they’re honest about when they’re doing it too much, when they’ve been doom-scrolling, when it’s affecting them, when they’re staying up late and not sleeping well. They know they can be honest about that. And so, I think calling these hotlines is one. And then, of course, if you need to talk to a therapist, that’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with it, because it is a mental health problem and it’s not something to be ashamed of.