Hello everyone, and welcome to ScilIne's media
briefing on sports betting and gambling addiction. I'm SciLine director Rick Weiss, and
for those not familiar with SciLine, we are a philanthropically funded, editorially independent,
free service for journalists and scientists. We're based at the nonprofit American Association
for the Advancement of Science and our mission is pretty straightforward. It's just to make it
easy as possible for reporters like you to get more scientifically valida
ted evidence into your
news stories. And as you'll see, if you check us out at Sciline.org, that means not just for stories
about science, but really any kind of story that you might be working on that can be strengthened
by adding some scientific evidence; which in our view is just about any kind of story you can think
of. And that's certainly true for the topic we're covering today. Billions of dollars are going to be
wagered on this coming weekend's Super Bowl. Just on that one event alo
ne this year and it's not
all about who wins. You can bet on how long the national anthem's going to go, you can bet on the
color of the Gatorade that's going to drench the coach, you can bet on how many times Donald Trump
is going to Tweet about Taylor Swift during the game. And that all sounds like a lot of fun, but as
we'll learn today it's dangerous for many people and that's where you're going to want to include
some science in your sports or business stories about sports betting. So,
whether you're a sports
journalist a business writer an entertainment blogger or a health reporter this is uh a chance
to get some scientifically validated facts into your stories a couple of quick logistical details
before we start we've got three panelists who are going to make short presentations of up to
7 minutes each before we open things up to Q&A to enter a question during or after these
presentations just hover over the bottom of your Zoom window select Q&A and enter your name
the
news outlet and your question if you want to pose that question to a specific panelist be
sure to note that a full video of this briefing will be available probably by the end of the day
today but if you need something sooner just let us know through that Q&A box and we'll send you
something right off the bat at the end of the of the uh briefing I'm not going to take the time to
do full introductions of our three speakers their bios are on the Seline website I just want to tell
you that we
will hear first from Dr Shane Krauss an assistant professor of psychology and director
of Behavioral of the behavioral addictions Lab at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas an opportune
location if you want to do field research and gambling I guess Dr Krauss will give us an
overview of the landscape of legal sports betting some relevant demographics of the participants
and a bit about the advertising and recruitment that fuels this bining Marketplace we're going
to hear second from Dr Ma
rk Potenza professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience and director of the
center of excellence in gambling research all at the Yale School of Medicine Dr Penza will clarify
the ways in which gambling is an addiction with a lot of similarities actually to substance abuse
including how it affects the brain and he's going to describe some of the impacts of gambling
addiction on physical and mental health and third we'll hear from Dr Timothy Fong a clinical
professor of Psychiatry at UCLA's Insti
tute for neuroscience and human behavior he's going to
talk about what's known about the availability and efficacy of treatments and preventive measures
including psychological interventions limits on advertising and some of those rapid response
helplines that I think some of you have seen out there okay so let's just jump in and get
started and that means you're up Dr Shane Krauss okay so thank you everyone so I'm really excited
to be here uh I'm actually as as it said I'm at University of
Nevada in Las Vegas a a phenomenal
place to study uh gambling and problem gambling as well so I'm excited to be here and thank
you for having me and I let's go ahead and do a quick overview so sports betting history
is kind of evolved so originally uh sports or sports betting was previously illegal under the
professional and amateur sports protection act in 1992 how however Delaware Montana Nevada and
Oregon had pre-existing lotteries Sports lotteries that were ex allowed to kind of be exe
mpt from
for sports betting however in 2018 so about six years ago the streem court uh in Murphy and
National Collegiate Athletic Association struck down this law in allowing states to legalize
sports betting and since that we've really had a really huge proliferation of sports we Jing
and sports betting throughout the country which we'll talk about but just to give you an idea of
scope of how big we're talking in six years uh 36 over 306 billion dollar has been handled uh 25.3
billion in
gross revenue uh 4 and a half billion in taxes uh has been generated so far again and I
think 2024 is going to be even a bigger year than the pr prior years Nevada alone is a big state for
sports wagering as well uh we have uh in six years as well we've handled 30 7 almost 37 Mill billion
2.1 billion in gross revenue and 142 million Super Bowl last year in 20123 which was very big uh
Nevada alone handled through our casino sports books here $150 million wor wagered for one game
I think that
's going to be much higher now that we have the Super Bowl here in Vegas um so this is
the map of the current regulation so what you're seeing is there's 38 that are read that those
are states that have legal Sports uh wagering or gambling in some capacity uh here there are
four states that are kind of this uh OD I'm not sure brownish color that is where we have uh
four states that are in the process of trying to legalize it and then we have seven states that
where in a sense it's not going
to happen or currently there's no legislation and one that is
not moving forward so you can really see we went from four that were kind of a small time to really
proliferation and this will continue to spread um so the question that we always get is who bets on
sports and I think this is an evolving question I would I would say that this is kind of what
research and some of our research in this lab is also finding but generally from a recent survey
from last year they found that when we lo
ok at who Sports those who are sports betters uh they're
predominant male they're a little more likely to be uh White have higher income and under 35 again
I think as more and more people are engaging in sports wagering I think these demographics should
be will be shifting and we really want to be kind of evolving our understanding but the question is
also you know 84% of them are actually reported being a sports fan 67% actually went to a live
sporting event in the past year 62% participat
e in fantasy football leagues or sports leagues these
are things where people get together teams and they create fantasy or in a sense not real teams
but they use players in the league and you can uh Gamble and wag your money uh through them as
well and then 41% watch Esports and this is like video games and betting on video games so this has
just came out so where're it's expect that about you know over almost really 29 million people
will intend to place an online wager for this year in S
uper Bowl so I think that is definitely
I think that's an increase and reflecting of the popularity of this um one of the the things that
we need to be having a conversation I know Dr tenzo will speak more to this is that what about
problematic Sports wagering and and really there's not a lot of research yet it's an evolving
area but a couple things that we know from uh the work we've done is that worldwide research
generally suggests us Sports uh batting is really is is associated with ele
vated risk for problem
gambling across and this is across countries and languages and cultures um our work that we've done
here recently is Esports wagering daily Fantasy Football uh and general Sports wagering are
generally associated with more problem gambling or higher severity compared to those without we're
also seeing uh more heavier substance use among those who engage in sports betting compared to
those who do not which has its own risk factors as we'll hear soon um and again people
who really
bet so the takeaway here is people who bet on G who gamble on Sports I think are often might be
a higher risk category but it's really important for to look at two things it's people who bet more
frequently in sports and also bet on two or more Sports so as people bet on more Sports across
different sports the risk for problem gambling will uh is showing to increase uh so the media is
uh really everywhere advertisement there there's lots of push you know a lot of excitement the
issue we're having is there's a limited scientific data on Sports wagering really an advertisements
for youth despite massive proliferation right that we're seeing in the US and throughout the world um
but what we know though what signals we're getting is that sports betting advertisements so sign up
bonuses um are related to at risk behavior so when you look at the screen you'll see it says $200
bonus you know bet sign up when we're offering uh money or incentives for advertisement that
i
tself uh has been seeming to be in a risk factor for young adults and this is prolific through uh
the industry right now so I think it's something worther further for consideration uh we also
know that sports betting advertisement through social media which uses odds or other things is
more Salient for men and men are a risk factor particularly between eight under 30 years old so
again an area that we should be considering um and what we know is that responsible marketing codes
or rules aro
und language and being careful that we're not using enticing or really problematic
language is not being enforced in advertisement nor is it being enforced across States so these
are some concerns and I think with the uh Super Bowl coming I've heard there's three ads it's
going to be interesting to see what language is coming forward you know is moving forward
through for marketing purposes so that's all I have for my slides so thank you great thank
you Dr cruss fantastic opener to get us a
sense of the landscape and the edges of the problem
here let's move on to Dr Mark Potenza for more so I will share my screen and start my
presentation thank uh you for having me here um I'll be talking about gambling disorder
as an addiction uh so it brings us to the question of what is addiction and um historically
um addictions um have been viewed at least for the past several hundred years as involving
excessive or problematic use of substances like like alcohol or other drugs um from a
societal
perspective addictions have been viewed from multiple perspectives um as a sin a vice um or as
uh an addiction as a bad habit and it's only been more recently that even substance use disorders
um have been considered as mental disorders and then more recently uh gambling disorder um has
been introduced into um the main nomenclature systems that Physicians use as the gold standard
for um considering uh mental health uh disorders so um what are addictions what are the core
elements
so um some may describe these as the Seas of addiction uh compulsive engagement
a craving or an repetitive Verge state that immediately precedes engagement in the uh
behavior for control over the behavior and then importantly continued participation in the
behavior despite adverse consequences and if we think about um whether nonsubstance behaviors like
gambling could fit with these core elements then um the the answer is yes and this has raised the
question as to whether gambling disorder
might be uh an addiction and in the most recent additions
of the diagnostic and statistical manual that's generated by the American Psychiatric association
and the international classification of diseases that's generated by the World Health Organization
both of these um books or entities uh categorize gambling disorder as a behavioral addiction so
um what are some of the other ways that people might uh consider uh gambling disorder there
were multiple competing theories as a obsessive com
pulsive spectrum disorder not being a disorder
that it's secondary to um other uh behaviors or or as an addiction when initially introduced into
the diagnostic and statistical manual now over 40 years ago the diagnostic term was pathological
gambling um in going from uh the fourth edition to the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and
statistical manual it was felt that the term pathological was stigmatizing and was removed
and the term gambling disorder uh was uh is now the uh formal uh condit
ion it was initially
classified as an impulse control disorder not elsewhere classified which was a heterogeneous
grouping of conditions and um it was felt that um this uh grouping um given the heterogeneity
and the additional information gained about the conditions um several disorders including gambling
disorder were separated out so um since 2013 in the diagnostic and statistical manual in 2018 and
2019 when the 11th revision of the international classification of diseases uh was release
d
both of these entities now consider gambling disorder as a behavioral addic so um what are the
relationships between um substance use disorders the um prototypical uh addiction and gambling
Disorder so when the diagnostic and statistical manual DSM work group met uh prior to dsm5 um
I and um another individual Dr Nancy Petri were asked to look at gambling disorder and substance
use disorders and look at uh similarities and differences in multiple domains clinical aspects
epidemiological
phenomenological genetic and others and based on the similarities um gambling
disorder was reclassified together with substance use disorders as addictive disorders um some
of these um phenomenological and clinical aspects include co-occurring disorders um the
uh High prevalence uh within um young younger individuals adolescents and young adults uh
that we heard about from uh Dr Krauss as well as biological similarities that include uh for
example how people process rewards so some of the b
rain regions and networks that are involved
in um processing of non addiction related rewards like money seem to be shared across substance use
and gambling disorders now there are differences that also exist um there are differences that
exist across substance use disorders for example withdrawing from um Alcohol Tobacco uh cannabis
all have different features this is the same with gambling disorder where the withdrawal aspect
tends to be more of an irritability or short tempered of not be
ing able to gamble when one
wants to in the setting of having recently gambled another difference uh from a clinical perspective
is uh the amount of financial uh debt that many people with gambling disorders um experience uh
which is often uh substantially greater than for substance use disorders as we heard from uh Dr
Krauss uh young males U particularly those with sporting involvement or interests as appear to be
particularly at risk and uh we also heard about uh perhaps this perfect stor
m involving the
overturning of the protection of amateur and professional sports act um the sporting culture
within the United States the accessibility uh of the internet to remove uh Geographic and uh time
boundaries when people feel like uh gambling they can do so relatively immediately as well as um
advertising media and other factors um may be contributing to um a rise in uh Sports gambling uh
problems importantly there's been less attention given to gambling disorder uh relative to
su
bstance use disorders there are data that indicate that many people see gambling as less
harmful uh than um substance use behaviors there's also um a greater threshold needed for making
a diagnosis of gambling disorder than there is um for uh making a diagnosis of a substance use
disorder and uh perhaps these are some factors that contribute to um most people with gambling
disorder not um seeking or receiving uh treatment um another factor is that there is little um
relatively little fundin
g for problem gambling treatment and research um and this has been noted
and the grit act has recently been introduced um by a senator in the state of Connecticut Senator
Blumenthal and this grid Act is the um gambling addiction recovery investment and treatment act
which seeks to set aside um half of the federal Sports excise tax revenue to fund programs for
uh gambling addiction prevention treatment and research um notably this would not result in
any increases and taxes and would utilize
um existing Health and Human Services infrastructure
um to um increase the resources that are available to help uh understand people with gambling
problems and to provide um uh treatment uh for the approximately 7 million US citizens who
are estimated to have uh gambling problems so um some references of some articles are here as well
as information on the grit act on the U website of the National Council on problem gambling as
well as um my contact information and thank you for uh the tim
e and opportunity to share this
information thank you Dr poent and a reminder to reporters that these slides will be posted at
the end of the briefing today so you'll be able to study those more closely and click on some of
those links and let's move on to Dr Timothy Fong uh thank you Rick and thank you uh Dr Penza and
Dr crra for setting that up and thanks for all the audience out there um I'm going to talk about
some of the solutions and prevention and treatment so the real question is wh
at can we do so we know
again about one to two% of the population has this Affliction of gam disorder what is treatment
look like this is a biological psychological social condition biological psychological social
risk factors created that means for treatment it's biological psychological social treatments that
we use the biological treatments are in following category number one medications now we don't have
any FDA approved medications right now but we do have a number of research medicat
ions that have
been evaluated over the last 25 years medications like opioid antagonists and other things that we
use for Addictive disorders have been shown in the lab to be potentially effective for reducing
the symptoms of Gamin disorder number two with medications is treating the very more than likely
co-occurring psychiatric conditions that come with gamling disorder depression ADHD trauma anxiety
disorder when we use those medications that lays the groundwork for folks to be able to d
o
recovery work in gambling disorder I also think about other biological treatments uh things
like sleep hygiene things like physical movement and exercise and even nutrition food as medicine
these are biological treatments that although they sound very very simple are really really crucial
for restoring Mental Health and Wellness in the brains and minds of men and women with gambling
disorder number two psychological treatments for gambling disorder we borrow a lot from the other
fields o
f addiction mental health we have you know dozens and dozens of types Psychotherapy that
can be used the thing that's very interesting now in 2024 is the emergence of tah health
therapy for license therapy and counseling over the telea health just like we're doing
right now with zoom and we have specialized treatment providers Across the Nation and the
globe who can provide these specialized types of psychotherapy through the zoom and platforms
and through telp so again it's psychotherapies
to identify the cognitive distortions to identify
increase motivations to do recovery work to help people with gaming disorder reduce the emotional
trauma the emotional distress that they have from gambling and third we have social treatments
and of course one will think about Gamblers Anonymous as a part of that social treatment to
report for fellowship and support and recovery but now we have some other newer ones including
things like software blockers like gam ban that prevent you from
logging on or or getting popups
from gambling related websites and gambling things like that we also have self-exclusion programs
where of course you can be uh ban yourself from online as well as brick and mortar casinos and not
actually have their players account uh active and not get teasers and emails moving forward so
those are some of the social treatments they have that are emerging we also using more and
more technology Dr Penza has a very interesting use of computer-based cognitive
behavior therapy
which means that you don't always have to wait for your therapist to actually do work on recovery
to have that available 247 on your phones or on your laptop it makes sense if we're going to make
addiction available 247 we need to make recovery and solutions available 247 bioc psychosocial
treatments how effective do all those work they actually work quite well and I think oftentimes
people say well how well well we know they work well roughly in our state of California wh
en
people come into treatment about 40 to 50% are able within just six months to have meaningful
improvements in their signs and symptoms of gaming disorder meaning their lives are better meaning
they can function better uh they're engaging more in recovery activities the trouble we have with
gambling disorder treatment it's not a condition that most people run to go see their doctor
or psychologist for this is a hidden addiction this is a disorder that's filled with a lot of
Shame and sti
gma and in the early phases of this condition you believe that if I just keep gambling
I'm going to make all the problems go away so by the time men and women come into our state
gambling treatment program in California it's very very severe essentially almost all the DSM
criteria are met the average amount of debt that our Gambler and gambling patients when they come
into State treatment is about $440,000 in debt from just gambling higher rates of co-occurring
substance use large amounts o
f distress and what I call lethal emotional pain High rates of suicide
attempts High rates of suicide completion so put that all together what do we do now is we have
to figure out how do we spark the conversation to get men and women who are experiencing harm
from gambling disorder at an earlier stage to come in many many cancers it's the same thing
people have no symptoms whatsoever but when they get screened for cancer blood in your stool
weight loss or blood marker that's elevated that
usually then triggers an additional screening
assessment our screening tools for gambling are interviews our self- questions our things that
are out there if I'm working with a primary care audience I'll have really one question I'll
say to a person does your gambling Behavior increase your quality of life or does it create
problems problem that could be wide ranging from physical social psychological or financial If it
creates problems that's something you should can be considered about a
more standardized question
there a two item question there we call the LIE bet question have you ever lied to anyone about
the extent of your gambling have you ever had the need to increase your bet to get that same sense
of thrill or action a yes answer to one of those two questions should then alert the healthc care
provider or the mental health provider to do a thorough assessment and go through the diagnostic
criteria so we don't have a blood test we don't have a brain scan we don't hav
e any fancy Star
Trek Tri quars that can tell us that you have a gambl issue we wish we did and that's something
the three of us have been working on for the last 25 years but we don't have any objective
biological tests there really goes back to that essential question there the third part I'll talk
about again is about other issues of prevention and it starts with number one healthy and proper
education of the risk of gambling starting for uh youngest people even in kindergarten to talk a
bout
the risk of gambling and what gambling addiction looks like number two it's the enforcement very
clear that this is an adult entertainment product this is meant to be 21 and over some states 18
and over but as we heard earlier from Dr Krauss very little enforcement of the regulation the Gam
ging that are set forth by state Regulators number three really looking at the gambling advertising
and saying if we're going to regulate Alcohol Tobacco and cannabis advertising what's the reason
that we don't regulate gambling advertising with the same full force the same sense of seriousness
the same sense of scientific understanding that we do with those other uh conditions there as
well um so those are some of the areas that we look at with prevention if I had one prevention
message is to delay the onset of the very first bet combined with delaying the frequency of
betting we certainly know that the younger you are when you start gambling combined with the more
frequent you star
t gambling those are definitely concerning risk factors and of course that's
why having access to the phone and 247 access to gambling is so concerning because you talk
about Early Access and frequent access that's the recipe that we have there so I didn't have
any fancy slides here today uh I've been stuck in this range storm in La I can barely survive
but we have survived but um absolutely I do have some slides if people want to see them in a
later time but you can always reach out and fi
nd me on Twitter at fster 98 or check out our our
beautiful website at the UC gambling program.org fantastic uh thank you so much Dr Fong for
that super interesting uh closing uh part of our introductory materials such an interesting
concept that if gambling is going to be available you know every moment of every day treatment ought
to be as well it's a really interesting uh point so we're going to get into the questions and
answers now I'll remind reporters you can click on the Q&A icon at
the bottom of your screen
and enter your question and meanwhile um be as as those come in I do typically start in these
briefings with one question from the moderator and that question is always the same it's basically
can you three experts as news consumers speak to our reporters today and just say one or two things
about something that you either appreciate about the way that media seems to be handling coverage
of this issue or give a critique or a suggestion of how the media could perha
ps improve how it's
going about bringing this topic into the news and I'll start with uh with you Shane Krauss okay
yeah I would say I think I really appreciate uh the last couple years there's been more stories
more discussion on sports betting and as it's happening so really I'm really grateful just like
this I think we need more discussions um I think my suggestion would be to really dig deep I think
what when I speak to a lot of journalists who are doing really really great stories they
keep
finding this this disparity between wide access increase access and little funding for research
little funding for for treatment and that doesn't really compare to other addictions so I think I
think that's a be curious dig and we should also be asking for some you know similar safeguards
because I don't really think they're really set up right now and despite the proliferation and I
think we're going to break break records today and even in Vegas we're going to break records uh for
wagering and that has risk particularly for as Dr Fong mentioned so I think that's those are things
to really consider very interesting it might be interesting for us a little later in this event
to talk about whether some of the forces that have fought against closer regulation and so
on in other areas like tobacco and oil might have be playing a similar game in this domain
there's a lot of money at stake that's for sure um Dr Potenza how about you yeah I I would um
Echo uh what Dr Krauss
uh has mentioned um I I appreciate the coverage of this important issue um
to communicate that um gambling for some can be uh very devastating um and to cover uh this during
times like prior to the Super Bowl I think is a time when people are amable to hearing about the
uh potential risk s that are associated with the behavior so grateful for the the coverage um
similarly I would say that digging deep and um perhaps uh not um oversimplifying some aspects
like um the neurobiology being uh do
pamine uh solely um go deeper than that um would be my
um recommendation but I'm really grateful for the important points that are being brought to the
uh public attention um about uh trying to make uh gambling um a safe activity um for all individuals
and addressing the the risks that um uh about the problems that some people experience and how to
um identify those people at earlier stages and get them the appropriate help that'ss uh from
which they're going to benefit um not only the iden
tified individual ual but also the family
members who and others who may be affected um indirectly like other addictions there's more
than one victim here Dr Fong so um you know 15 20 years ago when I first started almost all
the media inquiries were about like who do you like to win the Super Bowl you know uh who do you
have your money on things like that and and there was a lack of seriousness so I think number
one I really encourage media not to glamorize gambling stories right not to ce
lebrate here's
an average Joe who put $5 down and now he won you know $10,000 you know that that really I think
is not that's a disservice to kind of what we see here that's just advertising number two I don't I
don't like stories that generate a lot of fear so so much about the media criticism fear fear fear
fear fear fear right and you know we see a lot of stories of this is Joe and he lost his shirt and
and he's terrible and it's really horrible stuff and it's really hard but it's it cre
ates fear at
the idea that everyone's going to develop a gambl disorder and that's not true either instead
I like to see stories of recovery stories of inspiration of folks who have gone through it
and we do see some of that but then also for them to share their message of what got them into
treatment that's the missing part you always hear them say yeah I'm better now because of treatment
blah blah blah but you don't hear well what really got you into treatment what was the motivating
fac
tor and I think when you put all together I defi I really highlight what this is gambling
should be viewed in the media as a public health topic no different than air quality water quality
food safety it should be treated as such and the connection that you operate in there's going to be
a connection with gambling gambling disorder and whatever you look at whether it's mental health
sociology economics Sports reporting and things like that the thing last I'll say is I think
the vast majorit
y of sports Sports reporters who do report on gambling do it from the gambling
line and do it from the gaming perspective and I think that that's really where I challenge a lot
of Sports reporters to do more and talk about well it's part of our job to talk about the whole story
not just the betting line and whether that line is accurate what you think but how it impacts the
sports better and things like that great thank you all very much for that and let's get into
some reporter questions I
'll start with this from Ellen rols who's a reporter at Marketplace
some states are considering adding a responsible gambling curriculum to teach teens about gambling
as many young people are starting to make bets when it comes to the scientific research how
could this impact teen Behavior does anyone want to jump on that know what the scientific basis
is of whatever trainings are starting to get created Mark should jump in on that and I'll I'm happy to to jump in on that
Mark doesn't say I
'll say the opposite yeah so um teaching uh youth about
risk behaviors is an important effort um and gambling is often omitted from um risk behaviors
uh taught to uh Children and adolescents um so I think it's a welcome addition um to try to educate
um children and adolescents and young adults about um the potential risks associated with gambling
now how best to do that what are the uh programs that have empirical support for behaviors like
substance use that's a challenge because um how yo
u know part of the developmental process of
children moving into adulthood um adolescence is a period of risk-taking and even with education
about the risks of smoking and alcohol use and cannabis use youth engage in these Behavior
so how do we mitigate the the harm how do we uh try to promote healthier um behaviors is um
a challenge that is going to exist even with educational efforts so um I think what Dr Fong
had mentioned about things like how do we limit address iing how do we limit th
e glorification
of um a potentially risky behavior is I think an important way to have an effect on um a broad
range of individuals including youth who may be watching um uh different forms of media seeing
these advertisements of people who they admire um Hollywood celebrities sports figures who are
advocating for gambling on sports and it is also um how these uh Sports advertisements are being
portrayed like get X number of dollars in free bets it may also be misleading particularly to
yo
uth who may not understand uh some of the uh complexities um so there are ways I think
where we can do better um and it's going to take um multifaceted approach um to try
to protect the public health um and protect developing individuals uh youth um navigate a
complex environment and I'll just add to that what we know does not work is to say just say no
that does not work we also know that um getting forced curriculum into schools is very difficult
to get School uh you know approval to do t
hat in California we did have a project that show that
did work where we had a youth-led project where the young people created gambling public service
announcements themselves and then we tracked their be their own gambling Behavior over time and it
turned out that they uh were much less likely than other teenagers to engage in gambling Behavior
at a younger age so again it's educating you it's empowering you to start off earlier on and again
under these responsible gambling curriculum it'
s not about teaching math it's not about teaching
the odds it's about teaching resilience it's about teaching how to deal with loss it's about
how to teaching to deal with fear of missing out these are the themes that we now know are
much more science based that work not just for gambling but for tobacco alcohol and substance use
prevention fascinating here's a question um that maybe is up your alley Dr Krauss uh this is from
Craig Miller a freelancer based in New York what's the effect of
the NFL reversing itself and going
all in on this even becoming an official partner with the big bet companies including more betting
parameters in their game broadcast stats Etc yeah so I I think again I think the big issue is
again that expansion that we've seen I mean I I don't there's nothing else that compares it
such wide expansion across for you know we haven't seen cannabis go from four to 38 States overnight
there's so much money so much advertisement and I think you know so we kno
w where the most ads for
sports wagering are at are during NFL games right so I think uh I think it's a money decision I I
think it's problematic from my perspective that we're not we don't understand what we don't
know and when you ramp up really quickly uh there's a lot of risk factors and I think there
hasn't been enough discussion around mitigating harm and and Outreach and understanding and the
youth I mean there's a lot of people who don't understand there's risk with gambling and aga
in
there are young young people who are gambling and doing lots of things so I'm not sure I I I really
think it I don't know that it I think it's going to be problematic I think uh because there's
going to be three ODS there's at least three ODS now for the Super Bowl and what does that
mean and and again people often young people don't understand the risk associated with it and
and I think it's a big issue so I mean I I don't know I I think we we'll see how it turns out and
and they may w
e might they might find themselves in the industry in a position they're gonna have
a really hard time getting out of you know when as research and work comes out so yeah you know if
I can add an addendum onto that question though isn't it important that more and more Public
Services I think education among other things is dependent upon this funding does that create a
uh a counterforce against efforts to limit things well I I think what we need as we mentioned Dr
pretend to mentioned we ne
ed a we need a much robust system for funding uh the industry funding
is pretty limited I think yes there's some money six million but I think would you say $6 million
uh amount is sufficient for alcohol use wide issues during the Super Bowl which we know will
be very high so the answer is it's really it's one of we need many much larger players to have
funding to do the research with youth Outreach Public Health we need to treat it as a public
health thing but we also need federal and stat
e and Industry support which is really not happening
the the bill mentioned was struck down at Congress and it's dead so I think right now so I think you
know we're in this position where we're ramping up but really not thinking through I think NE
tomorrow I would say we're not really think about tomorrow any other comments Mark or Timothy before
we move on yeah you know I I've been a big sports fan for a long time and what we're seeing now it's
combining of football and gambling two things
that never once were in the same Lane they were always
meant to be opposite and now you're going to have a brand new generation of people who only know
football and gambling together as the product um NFL has also got into the slot machine business
you know they have NFL slots and I think what I see at least in the discussions you know Americans
don't like quote hypocrisy they don't like this idea of you do one thing and then you do this
opposite so I think if I were advising NFL I say you
know you need to come out a little stronger
to say you know what and how is your entertainment product benefiting by partnering with gambling
operators you know for they're a private company should they be mandated to pour more money
into responsible gambling work and problem gambling research they're a private company but
they're a private company that is the biggest visible company in the world right and they do
a lot of wonderful social things there as well they do support some problem
gambling e efforts
there as well so I think again for me as just a consumer it's always about how is a product that
I'm watching on the field how do I make sure it's really actually true that in the game Integrity is
true and I think this is a big question and topic that people are saying well not that the NFL is
quote partnering with gambling operators the game must be rigged isn't that fascinating that this
is the first year I see more and more and more discussion it's rigged it's totally
rigged you
know and that I think is a fascinating commentary that comes because of the combo of gambling and
football together that's fascinating and part of a much bigger social movement about disinformation
these days that I'm sure we could get diverted onto but we won't right now uh here's a question
from Tyler Duke from the Raleigh news and observer what should colleges and universities be doing
what's their responsibility for college students to reduce problem gambling anyone want to
pick
that up I'm happy to get the ball rolling um so I think that University should address uh this
in multiple ways uh part of it would be not to promote gambling so things like Cino nights that
some universities um have sponsored should not be supported by the the University or college um
and education about uh the um potential harms of um gambling uh by uh college students would be um
something to introduce into um the the colleges um I think what Dr Fong had said about um uh
not scarin
g people but also informing people is very relevant and often times uh youth um hear
things well from peers with lived experience and perhaps having people who have recovered um from
gambling problems that they experience while in college uh would be an effective way to educate
individuals in a way that people um can hear it from someone about their own age who has gone
through and experience um and can you be there to engage in dialogue in a question and answer
fashion um so these are way
there are different ways in which uh colleges and universities um
can um act proactively to try to help protect their student bodies um and uh the these could be
incorporated into um times where um students may be gambling um um more uh heavily like during um
March which is problem gambling Awareness Month um but also is the time of the NCAA tournament
um and many colleges um engage in um uh the NCAA tournament and um or it could be done during an
orientation for all incoming students or bo
th um there are different ways in which these colleges
and universities can think about trying to get the message out in a way that can is heard by their
students Dr cross you're at a University campus where one needs only walk across the street to
find a bunch of casinos is this something that you see being addressed uh so I I think that I I would
say the short answer is no I mean I think here at unv we have I think you universities minimally
should have their mental health clinics we know
there's cbit people of gambling have mental health
issues so screening and all mental health settings would be important I do think that universities
are not taking it seriously even UNLV there's recently they partnered with an organization they
sent out stuff on Sports March Madness out and I just thought that's not I I think University
should not be soliciting or actually just putting out any advertis for for for gambling to
to their student body in any capacity I also think we need to b
e educating more about alcohol use
substance use while gambling which I think for younger people uh that's definitely a risk factor
but again I think education is amazing it goes a long way I think we just have a conversation but I
think we need to work with administrators because I think in leadership at universities that you
know we know that young people you know college age are gambling online and that that's ticking up
pretty quickly so I think you know let's get ahead of it let's educ
ate let's provide knowledge as Dr
Penza mentioned so you know to really be in front of that and I think that's we're still not there
don't think so uh there was a recent NCAA survey uh that showed that 60% of college students didn't
in fact B on Sports you know so it is absolutely a major activity again 18 and up in only a few
States vast majority States it's 21 and up so I encourage a lot of college and universities to
generate a gambling policy as related to their code of conduct they hav
e alcohol policies they
have substance policies but I'm not aware of any University that actually has a gambling policy
in terms of code of conduct uh for students who actually do that inside University Housing or
various things like that so that's definitely an area of growth and that should be done very
interesting here's a question that's come in that's uh asking for some practical information
that I think youall can help with what are some of the warning signs to look for to assess whet
her
someone a friend or family member has crossed over from normal gambling Behavior into problem
gambling Dr Fong I think you touched on some of these signs you want to start with a few warning
signs there yeah I mean all of us this is this is our core and I think if you take a hundred men
and women with gambling disorder issues right and you said what do they look like in the first few
months they started to have problems it's going to be hundred different stories it's going to be all
so
rts of possibilities from changes in personality more depression loss of sleep not doing your
responsibility more anxiety financial difficulties per you know lying and things like that so that's
why gambling disorder is so unique because every history is not the same but the the themes
are the same and that's the gambling continues despite these harmful consequences biological
psychological social consequences happening they keep doing it so the warning signs and that's our
task to make tho
se connections often times I'll see folks who are not gambling disorder clients
and they'll come to me I'm depressed I can't sleep you know I don't like my spouse and they think
it's an issue with depression or an issue with the marriage and it turns out what's driving
that distress is gambling great and I'll add a few other things so one of one common behavior
um among people with gambling problems is chasing uh losses so going back to a place of gambling to
win back back money that was re
cently lost so if people are chasing losses and this may involve um
people asking others for money um they may not be honest about what the money is for so if people
begin asking multiple people for money or once should have a suspicion of perhaps this may be
related to gambling if people are not functioning um well in different capacities be it um work or
for uh students at school um keeping in mind that there may be behaviors like gambling where there
are not visible signs of intoxication
um so um you keep this in mind and uh be open to um asking
people and people may deny it may become upset um there may be um uh tension uh but um ultimately
it's um trying to um care for people around them and these are also signs that people can take if
one is um not being honest about um their gambling Behavior begins to hide or conceal or lie about
their gambling behavior that that's concerning or experiencing psychological distress about gambling
is another concern the only thing I wou
ld add to that is escapism so particularly when we look at
US veterans people with trauma histories military backgrounds uh we see sometime this escapism
using gambling to escape kind of where they're at and their experiences uh in the moment so you
know if you're really going if you're gambling to kind of Escape your current stressors or Escape
that's also kind of I think something that think about someone's like oh I'm going to go because I
just can't handle the whole week and I'm G to ju
st go blow off steam but that's really their their
reason to do that that's also I think kind of a red flag like hey let's talk about that escapism
gambling should not be an Escape right so so that gets a little worrisome so great very helpful
we've got a few more questions here I just want to mention to reporters on the line that uh as we
start to wrap up when you do log off you will be prompted for a very short survey it's just three
or four questions it'll take about a half a minute thes
e surveys are very helpful to us as we plan
these media briefings and come up with topics and experts who can help you in your reporting
so I ask you that you do take that extra half a minute or so and uh fill out the survey for us so
we can keep these really informative uh briefings going for you we've got a question here that asks
within the realm of legal sports betting are there any guard rails limitations or constraints
on what people can do for example maximum amounts one can wager in
a single bet or maximum
number of Wagers they can be placed on a given event um I I'll just jump in really quickly I
think uh the is one of the issues we have have is we don't have we need more access researchers
need access to player data so really understand what's happening from real people um so then the
research is a bit limited but I think some of the research now and I think what we're studying
here as well in our research is I think some really I think that we should we we're looki
ng
as well as live betting so once a game started betting while a game I think that is incredibly
risky knowing that probably 50% of the people 40 50% are actually using substances so then
prompting and sending advertisement to someone to bet why they're probably drinking is likely
a poor decision for or is likely related to risk and I also think using things like overdraft
we published or using things like looking at overdrafts over commitments you know five or
six counts to deposit money
to different apps I think there are ways that you know we don't have
all the information but we need to do something there should be some safeguards and there really
pretty Lim it's pretty limited you know and again showing someone psycho education oh you know set
a limit well someone problem gambling they would they would set a limit if they could but because
they have a problem they can't so psycho Education Works works well for people without the issue
but once you're on the problem gam
bling train psycho education responsible gambling strategies
are really ineffective so you need to have higher more direct cut offs and that's still limited
and I think without industry support and without really funding we might have to take really harsh
cut offs or decisions with play and that so we really want to get it right but we really need
more support from industry as well as you know from funding and research perspectives so yeah and
I highlight a couple facts here that are really
interesting that you know of all the mobile online
bets from what I understand the same gain parlay now is the dominant form of sports betting wager a
small amount that you put on multiple outcomes of one game to win a much larger reward that in my
mind is like a slot machine bet that's not like a single bet on the winner or loser so that's
the dominant form the second thing is none of this applies to unregulated sports betting webs
it so that's the problem that we really have no idea how
many of those are out there unregulated
how to stop them how to put them down I've had a number of patients who say I prefer to play on
the unregulated sites because they're faster they're quicker they have more offerings and
it's completely Anonymous and I don't have to pay taxes or worry about my employer finding out
that I'm gambling on an unregulated website we have a colleague who who uh advocates for the idea
that when you the first year that you sign up for a mobile sports betting th
at you have almost like
a Gambling License that you have a maximum amount that you can spend uh per year on your first
year or while you learn how to gamble well you know it's like a driver's license that doesn't
I don't think that's going to work in America but those are the sorts of things that we're
kind of interested in and lastly how do you do this when a lot of states have multiple gambling
operators it isn't just one you know for instance like certain States will have like Ohio has l
ike
six G gambling uh mobile Sports operators other states will have as many as 17 so if you put the
restrictions on one site it's just guy just logs off and gets on another site that is giving them
a teaser anyway just a few ideas Dr T I know has a few comments to back that up too anything you want
to add Mark on limitations well I I am mindful of the time that we have and want to make sure that
we get to all the questions so I'll pass on this well I I was just about to wrap up with the la
st
question from me so if you want to say something quickly on this topic well you know well um yeah
I I think that um one thing that I would like to bring up that is separate from this topic just
briefly um because I do see in the chat about health care providers screening I do think that
this is very important like uh phys Physicians ask about tobacco use and alcohol use to add
gambling but I would also add cannabis use uh to that list of what um healthc care providers ask
about given th
e changing landscape with cannabis uses well with cannabis yeah I'm sorry we didn't
uh we've got just two minutes left but um we did have a question that I had missed here uh about
how Bing apps have changed beding this from Nick Lair at the conversation and do they actually
screen out users of uh who are under 18 or 21 are there push notifications to encourage betting
or live betting anyone want to quickly weigh in on that I I I don't again because there's unregulated
regulated I don't thi
nk there's a there's really good I we know that push using push push updates
are used I mean that's used for all social media right so uh so I think that's happening I I
think that's not it's just the degree and how aggressiveness and the marketing saying oh we'll
match $20 you know you don't go to this the store and you're buying a bottle of wine and say oh
we're going to give be three bottles because you bought the one so again I think there's
some of that happening again because it's so
many companies so unregulated and all bearing
there really has to be oversight in kind of like kind of understanding a better landscape we
just don't know which is really yeah why I think it's concerning yeah it's incredibly difficult
to have online compliance of Gamin operators I mean it's not like a brick and mortar where you
have controlled space and I hold the operators responsible but I also hold you the states who
authorize and regulate them responsible because it's got to be a shared
partnership so I've have
so many patients that have used VPN who've gotten on underage you know onto legal regulated websites
and they just didn't know vice versa again the technology is there it's just how do we find the
will and the ability to actually have healthier compliance in accordance with the regulations to
which they uh uh were legalized great great way to wrap up I'd like to end these briefings with just
a real quick piffy comment from each of the three of you often these are t
he most helpful succinct
things that reporters can go with one take-home message that you want every reporter to walk away
with today who have been on this briefing and uh what would that be Shane I think it's going to
be dig deep to look at your area your community so again if if everyone's looking within their
community and their in their areas and their states I think that's a really good thing for
us great Mark most people gamble most people gamble develop without developing problems bu
t
a small percentage uh develop problems that can be very severe and making sure that we protect um
vulnerable individuals including developing youth is really important and Timothy uh gambling is
a public health issue and it's uh important for us to continue having uh conversations about
all the aspects of how it impacts body brain minds and communities I want to thank our
excellent panel of presenters today a lot of great information on a very timely topic
um I also want to encourage rep
orters who are online here to fill out the survey as you leave us
today we'll keep you informed about other upcoming briefings thank you all for participating and
for educating the public public through your various ways about this important public health
issue see you at the next Seline media briefing
Comments