The omnipresence of gambling and gambling-like activities has made financial catastrophe a few clicks away for anyone with a phone. Experts increasingly see the simultaneous rise of online sports betting, online casinos (legal or not), cryptocurrency trading, and day trading as the same root thing—gambling—with the same root issues.
Often, they even involve the same people. Survey data out of the National Council on Problem Gambling last year found a significant correlation between people who trade on a weekly basis and gamble as well. “There’s a big overlap there,” said Keith Whyte, the executive director of the organization. The true extent of the issue is only now starting to emerge and is in need of additional study, said Lucas Trautman, the medical director of Oxford Treatment Center in Mississippi and a psychiatrist who has helped people with addictive disorders including gambling.
“It’s blown up under our nose,” Trautman said.
Cindi M. has certainly noticed a lot of people like Jason coming to meetings recently. A member of Gamblers Anonymous who now serves as the public relations chair for the group’s board of trustees, she said there’s been a dramatic increase in the number of young men developing compulsive gambling issues and showing up to meetings since online sports gambling became legal in Illinois three years ago.
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