By Ian Gonzales
The documentary The Sports Betting Boom/Out of Bounds mobilizes public opinion more firmly against the dangers of sports betting, with the noble goal of protecting bettors through greater legislation and regulation. It believes that effective cooperation between sportsbooks, sporting teams, elected officials, and law enforcement is the best way to conquer this societal issue gradually. Testimonial stories of individuals who’ve had their lives and finances ruined by sports betting activities are highlighted. The specific strategies employed by companies to attract and addict customers are also explained.
Recently, FanDuel’s parlay feature has gained notable traction. The parlay feature allows bettors to make a single wager that links together all 16 weekly NFL Games. A nearly infinite number of options could be combined into a single bet. This structure intentionally plays right into customers’ impulse and adrenaline systems. The goal of the sportsbook designers and executives is to retain as many customers as possible through addictive marketing and features, while ensuring that customers collectively lose enough money to turn out an enormous profit for them. When engaging in parlays, customers often describe getting a rush of excitement and a detachment from reality, thus making them less capable of practical reasoning.
Meanwhile, FanDuel bought out a smaller company called SimpleBet in 2020, with the main objective of capitalizing on the microbetting feature. Microbetting allows players to wager during games about whether the next pass will be successful or not. Microbets are far more addictive than pregame bets and are designed to be so with the help of experts focused on maximizing company profits. In October 2025, the FBI arrested NBA Player Terry Rozier in connection with a wider investigation into sports gambling through microbetting. This occurred following Rozier’s exit from a game after nine minutes due to an alleged foot injury. Later, the placing of 30 microbets in one day regarding Rozier’s assists, points, and rebounds by a bettor online alerted Draft Kings, FanDuel, and other major sportsbooks. A clear message was sent to fans, athletes, and others highly involved in such online betting practices: this highly addictive practice could yield legitimate consequences, and all must exercise strong caution when engaging in it.
Documenting the stories of ordinary young fans and bettors is also crucial in pushing for better legislation and regulations. By explaining the thought processes of the innocent who haven’t yet had their lives ruined, but are fully addicted enough to, a strong emotional and practical appeal can be made. In turn, congress could pass more preventative legislation. A good example of such young, ordinary bettors would be Mike, Landon, and Austin from the documentary. They describe the addictive thought of having a successful six-leg parlay hit as “just you and the fight now. It’s nothing else around you. It’s just the most adrenaline filled thing that you can think of.” This quote adequately depicts what it feels like for bettors to be caught up in the psychological betting frenzy. Additionally, these three friends mention how they’ve grown to realize just how insidious the major sportbooks companies are, through practices of closely analyzing personal data and then using software and AI to automatically tailor specific advertisements to individual customers. The algorithms are becoming capable of knowing a given customer on an eerily personal level. Just simply pulling away and disengaging would be exceedingly difficult for most.
Some industry leaders and writers who have customers’ best interests at heart are actually appreciative of widespread betting legalization. This is due to legislation approving software and human and monitoring systems designed to collect important data from sportbooks and subsequently contact law enforcement and sporting leagues. David Hill from Rolling Stone magazine believes that behaviors like Roziers’ have always existed and always will. However, the industry now has the means and authorization to investigate it more thoroughly. Likewise, Jeremey Kudon, President of the Sports Betting Alliance, argues that “the system worked. The operators identified unusual activity around certain wagers. They notified the league, they notified the authorities. This is what we want. If we had this in 1919, we might not have had the Blackstock Scandal.” When the 1992 general Federal prohibition on sports betting was still in place, such monitoring systems didn’t yet exist, thus more easily encouraging underground betting activities.
The widespread legalization of sports betting practices has allowed for congressional representatives and committees to take a larger role in advocating for addiction treatment. For example, the addiction treatment and recovery caucus, headed by representative Paul Tonko, pushes for policies that tackle sports betting addiction. Through marketing, for example, Tonko and other caucus members derive inspiration from decades-old advertisements pushing for restrictions on nicotine products. They understand that a sharp decrease in the advertising of sportsbooks, betting games, and betting accessories could have a significantly positive impact on younger generations by limiting the extent to which they’re exposed to such concepts from a very early age. Through AI, technologies can be built to study the psychological patterns and neuron impulses associated closely with gambling. Doing so will begin to produce more concrete explanations for the sports gambling behaviors that are taking over younger generations of fans.
Additionally, the United States’ sporting industries and legislative bodies would do well to learn from recent policies being implemented in the United Kingdom. The U.K. has been implementing stricter limits on online slot games to prevent gambling related harm, and subsequent legislation has correctly identified young men between the ages of 18 and 24 as the most vulnerable demographic group. For example, a measure taking effect between 2025 and 2026 limits young adults to £2 per spin in addictive betting games. Additionally, the U.K. has also enacted deposit limit laws, obliging online sportsbook operators to prompt customers to set financial limits before depositing. If similar laws could actually pass in the United States, social and financial improvements of real significance could begin to take place.
While the widespread legalization of sports betting across the country has had some social benefits, journalist Jemele Hill is certain that the consequences will get worse in the short term. She predicts that one or more of three possible scenarios will turn public opinion firmly against the sports betting industry. First, a dramatic spike in addictions and gambler suicides on a national level could dramatically change public opinion. Second a scenario in which an enraged gambler could try to assassinate a player could arise. Lastly, a situation where a respected player or championship game is exposed for having been rigged in advance could change everything. Industry leaders and writers believe that one of these three dramatic scenarios might be what’s needed for more aggressive legislation against sportsbooks to actually pass. In the aftermath of any of these three events, Hill believes that the extremely addictive nature of sports betting will no longer be able to be effectively hidden. While nearly everyone at least subconsciously recognizes this issue already, it will be much harder to downplay, following such a dramatic scenario. However, in the meantime, she urges that it falls upon everyone to be aware and raise awareness of the massive risks associated with the freedom and burden of sports gambling.
