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Super Bowl Gambling Can Prompt Dangerous Addictive Behaviors
< < Back to super-bowl-gambling-can-prompt-dangerous-addictive-behaviorsThe Super Bowl is the largest single betting event each year in the United States and the numbers keep growing.
Some 26 million people wagered almost $7 billion dollars on last year’s Super bowl, according to the American Gaming Association. That was a 15 percent increase from the previous year. This year’s figures are expected to go even higher.
Zion Market Research predicts that sports betting will increase from $104 billion in 2018 to a whopping $155 million in 2024.
These kinds of escalating figures put high-risk problem gamblers in even greater peril, says Scott Anderson, the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services Problem Gambling Treatment Coordinator.
He works with the Ohio’s “Before You Bet” Campaign to attempt to identify and help problem gamblers. And, sports gamblers have been identified as one of the largest groups of addicted and potentially addicted gamblers.
According to Ohio for Responsible Gambling, 24.4 percent of the at risk/problem gamblers are sports bettors.
Yet, Anderson says, that gambling and gambling situations are difficult to avoid. It is all around us from mobile phone day trading to state supported lotteries.
Although problem gambling can be devastating to an individual’s personal, financial and professional life, it can sometimes be difficult to detect in its early stages.
If someone is concerned about their gambling or the gambling of a friend or loved one, Anderson suggests that the person visit BeforeYouBet.org
At that site, a user can take a free online quiz to better understand problem gambling and can be linked to help for their problem.
Besides the website, a person suspecting a gambling problem can get help directly by calling 1-800-589-9966.
