For most of history, sports betting looked like a gated booth outside of a racetrack where a circle of cigar-smoking mobsters planned how to fix games, from deciding which players should take dives to finding how best to trick people into putting all of their money on a horse named “Jablowski.” Unfortunately, like so many other things in our world, even the slightest bit of aesthetic appeal that these GoodFellas-wannabes had has been consumed by flashy neon website design, questionable legality, and almost nonexistent restrictions.
American pop culture has begun a descent into a mindset of “gamble on everything.” Apps like Kalshi and Polymarket allow users to bet on virtually anything, from this year’s Oscars, to stock markets, and even political elections (both domestic and foreign). However, easily the biggest sector of these gambling apps is sports betting. On both sports-specific (like DraftKings) and general apps (like Kalshi), users bet on game results, draft picks, and almost everything else related to athletics. Often disguised at fantasy sports, through their vague practices with money and easy use, these apps are supposed to be heavily regulated across the US. But though they claim to be abiding by legal guidelines, they have been involved in a large number of scandals and lawsuits, many of which have been focused on their shockingly high userbase of people under the age of 18. They blur the lines between predicting and betting finding loopholes in the regulations, by allowing users to buy contracts prediction outcomes rather than a traditional bet. These markets become closer to trading than betting, apps like Kalshi even being regulated by the Commodity Future Trading Commissions rather than state gambling commissions.
These supposed guardrails however, have inevitably shown that it’s surprisingly difficult to stop a teenager with a savings account and a dream.
“I learned about sports betting while watching football in stadiums since they are sponsored by betting companies,” said an anonymous high school senior. “It’s very easy [to create an account] because companies have no incentive to not let young people bet, I’d say about one third to one half of guys at our school bet.”
The Stampede doesn’t believe it wise to plainly state the methods used to bypass age verification on gambling sites, but the ones our sources have provided us with are shockingly simple and raise the question: do gambling apps even care if their users are legal? While they claim to take great precautions against underage betting, the ease of access for teens and lack of punishment most face suggests gambling apps know teenagers are a huge source of income, and are unwilling to give that up, even if it means addicting thousands of young people.
The increase in sports betting among teenagers, particularly high school students, raises an important question: what keeps them betting? Some may be motivated by the promise of quick cash for online purchases, while others may find themselves caught in a cycle where the excitement of winning outweighs the reality that they may be losing more money than they gain. After all, according to USA Today, underage gamblers have sunk as much as 2.8 million dollars into apps like DraftKings since 2023. Since prediction markets don’t seem to be losing any popularity and teenagers are starting to grow into the age where they can legally gamble, these companies have incentive not only to look the other way, but to actively encourage teens to gamble for current and consistent users. The amount of ads for sports betting companies has skyrocketed in recent years, and the disclaimers are becoming shorter and faster.
The senior continues on to say “I’ve been doing five to twenty dollar bets on football games since early middle school, just because I was confident in who would win…I’d guess I’ve made a couple hundred in profit.”
So if these users were going to start betting legally in a couple years, what’s the harm in starting the career early? Gambling is clearly addictive towards developing brains, most of which are looking for the dopamine high that the unpredictable nature of gambling provides. The normalization through ads and culture disguising the long term issues it can provide concerning financial stability with debt starting early. Most students understand the risk and still decide to do it anyways, an even more clear symbol of why betting is so dangerous to younger generations.
Sports betting has gone from something hidden in casinos into something that can fit into a teenager’s pocket. Whether it’s to make money for Robux or just for the love of the game, betting is a trend that’s not going away any time soon.
