From September to November, he was down $12,000. He was continually transferring money from his savings and paychecks to his debit card. At one point, he was losing $3,000 a week. When he lost, he’d keep betting higher amounts to make back what he lost, and he’d lose that, too. Then he started betting even larger amounts of money trying to get ahead. He would win some, lose some, but he was basically breaking even.

Then the random overseas games at 2:00 a.m. Samith joined the group and started placing bets on sports he didn’t even watch, like football. Gambling Twitter is filled with heavily promoted communities of sports bettors, like which charges for access to its picks and entices people to pay for them by posting its winnings (think turning $5 into $5,000, $1,800 into $60,000). There was only one week he didn’t bet that summer: when he went on vacation to Hawaii, where online sports betting isn’t legal.Ĭlick here to read the full survey results. Quick cash that makes you think, If I’d put in $250, I would’ve had $20,000. He ended up turning that $25 into $2,000 in one day. Summer came around, and Samith was bored, so he took $25 and selected a bunch of MLB teams for a parlay based on minus odds, meaning they were projected to win. That was the firstt ime he felt that gambling high. He was up double-and he hadn’t even spent any of his own money yet. A few months passed, and nothing really hit. The then-22-year-old sales specialist had never placed a bet, but the promotional offers tempted him-up to $1,000 for “risk-free” bets-so he downloaded the app and started placing a few wagers on the NBA. began receiving referrals from friends to join the betting app when New York legalized online sports betting in January 2022. IT STARTED WITH a $300 bonus credit for FanDuel. To read the rest of the stories, click here.

This piece is part of a series of stories about today's sports-betting boom and how to combat a gambling addiction.

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