I’m not going to lie; being a Michigan sports fan took a hit this weekend as the Detroit Lions lost and the Ohio State Buckeyes won a national championship.
As my leading sports-watching season ends, I hope the dozens of sports betting apps that flow through my news consumption and into my personal group chats daily also end.
Yeah right. A few years into the sports betting pandemic, bettors are losing way more than they are winning, and it’s creating an epidemic of sorts that could be comparable to the opioid crisis.
And the best part is that your government set it up.
Sports betting is a sweeping social revolution with normalization that rivals drinking, toking, and even fentanyl.
Michigan commercial and tribal operators earned $2.9 billion in gaming and $460.5 million from sports betting in 2024, a 23% increase from 2023, according to the State of Michigan.
Less than 5% of users make a profit off sports gambling and 3% of gamers who lost the most will generate 50% of total revenue for these sports books, according to a study led by Southern Methodist University.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I enjoy throwing $5, $10, or even $20 on a sports contest that I’m confident in betting on.
But the problem comes with the immediate access of gambling on anybody’s phone at the push of a button.
Several people close to me nearly threw their lives away, betting on a 10:30 p.m. regular-season national basketball game. We love them, but that is what I would call degeneracy.
Luckily, none of them have lost their livelihoods (yet), and within my closest friend group, we have even stopped all talk of gambling altogether because of the dangers it poses, especially to young men.
As we grow older, maybe we realize that gambling is just a fun activity from time to time.
I believe the State of Michigan hampered its residents by legalizing mobile sports betting just to join the other 39 states that have legalized the activity to open millions of dollars in tax dollars revenue.
These gambling companies target young men specifically and we need to be there to guide young adults through this tricky acceptance of gambling.
Young men need to check on their friends about sports betting because this cruel game has plenty of pitfalls that can ruin someone’s life.
