Last month, Max Spradlin, a junior at the University of Vermont, was watching a basketball game with his friend Marc Mastrangelo, also a student.
The Boston Celtics were playing the Oklahoma City Thunder, and the Celtics were up by more than 30 points. Mastrangelo needed one more 3-pointer from Celtics guard Payton Pritchard for his bet to succeed.
With only two minutes left in the game, Pritchard caught a pass right above the 3-point line and lofted a high arching shot over his defender. Mastrangelo’s first bet ever had cashed out.
“We hit, we hit, we hit,” Mastrangelo said, jumping off the couch.
Spradlin wasn’t as lucky. He’d placed two bets on the game and ended up losing 15 cents, but he didn’t mind.
“I had a fun time rooting for a meaningless, random regular season NBA game that the Celtics were clearly going to win the whole time,” Spradlin said. “I had a good time with it even though I lost, technically.”
Spradlin turned 21 in January, just before Vermont legalized online sports betting. Now, he bets on basketball and hockey games a lot.
“I usually bet a few times a week," he said. But he tries to limit the habit — if he notices he’s bet several days in a row, he takes a couple of days off.
“I know gambling can be dangerous and it's a very downward spiral,” he said.
Spradlin is one of about 30,000 people in Vermont who placed bets on sports games last month. The average bet was close to $18.
Many were drawn in by ads from sports betting apps like FanDuel and DraftKings. The companies promise $200 in “bonus bets” when you sign up for $5.
“From an addiction counselor standpoint, it terrifies me.”Gary Mitchell, drug and gambling addiction counselor
“It was a brilliant marketing strategy to get people involved,” said Gary Mitchell, a drug and gambling addiction counselor in Hardwick, who’s also a big sports fan.
“We're just giving people the perfect marriage — the perfect storm — between screen time addictions and gambling,” Mitchell said. “From an addiction counselor standpoint, it terrifies me.”
Mitchell meets with every one of his clients to talk about sports betting. He tells them to make a plan and to consider setting a monthly spending limit.
“When you see the money in your account, there's definitely like a green light that goes off in your brain.”Brian Donahue, Burlington
Annie Turvey, a junior at the University of Vermont, has her own way of limiting how much she bets.
“I’ll consider the money lost already so I don't get my hopes up,” Turvey said. “Like, OK, I just spent $20, I know that’s gone. And if I win, then it’s like, ‘Oh my God, free money.’”
For Burlington resident Brian Donahue, 23, he’s only been using money he’s won since signing up. He said he keeps these guardrails up because sports betting can feel terrific.
“When you see the money in your account, there's definitely like a green light that goes off in your brain,” Donahue said. “It's almost like when you eat chocolate or anything like that. It's just that dopamine rush that you get, specifically from winning.”
Donahue’s biggest win came during the Super Bowl, when he won $1,700. He was able to take some time off work to pursue his biggest hobby, music.
While these big wins sound alluring, very few sports bettors leave with any profit. The average sports bettor has lost around 8 cents for every dollar they spent since 2018, according to a review of sportsbooks’ earnings last year.
The likelihood of losing is a big reason why sports betting addictions, and gambling in general, can be so damaging. Around 1%-5% of sports bettors become problem gamblers and seriously addicted, according to a recent study in Connecticut.
Other studies show 20% of adults are at risk for becoming problem gamblers, according to Ohio For Responsible Gambling.
“So it varies from study to study, but what we do know is that online sports betting is much more addictive than other forms of betting,” said Dr. Kelley Klein, the medical director for the Vermont Department of Mental Health.
“There’s a million different things to bet on in one day, and so there’s a million different times your brain can have that dopamine rush.”Dr. Kelley Klein, Vermont Department of Mental Health
Klein says it’s more addicting because of the number of outcomes. Old sports betting used to be about one question: "Who’s going to win?" Online sports betting offers a lot more betting options.
“It can be who’s going to start, who’s going to kick, what foot are they going to kick with, how long will the national anthem go,” Klein said. “There’s a million different things to bet on in one day, and so there’s a million different times your brain can have that dopamine rush.”
Gary Mitchell isn’t sure the state is prepared for this volume of new problem gamblers — especially as sports betting continues to grow.
“That's my biggest concern, is where are we going to be in two, three, four years from now,” Mitchell said.
To prepare, the Vermont Department of Liquor and Lottery gave $250,000 to support training Vermont counselors to specialize in problem gambling, based on practices developed in New York state.
“We already have people training up, and have many individuals that have already completed the training,” Klein said.
The department’s goal is to have trained counselors in every part of the state within the next year.
This story is a collaboration between Vermont Public and the Community News Service. The Community News Service is a student-powered partnership between the University of Vermont’s Reporting & Documentary Storytelling program and community newspapers across Vermont.
