What Christian Parents Should Know About Sports Betting

Gambling, ,

The group Axis recently released a video highlighting how sports betting is harmful — especially for teenage boys.

Axis provides videos and resources designed to help parents have gospel-centered conversations with their children about faith and culture. Their recent video helps parents understand how sportsbook apps turn sports fans into gamblers and why young men are especially vulnerable.

Nationwide, sports betting is legal in 39 states — including Arkansas, where people are on track to wager nearly a billion dollars this year on sports betting alone. But a growing body of evidence shows this type of gambling is causing serious harm — especially to teens and young adults.

Studies show people who gamble on sports may be twice as likely to suffer from gambling problems. When sports gambling happens online, the rate is even higher.

Experts estimate more than half of men ages 18 – 49 now have an active sportsbook account online. While not all of these people may suffer from gambling problems, bankruptcy attorneys across the country say online sports betting is driving a surge in personal bankruptcies among young adults in their 20s and 30s.

Twenty-year-old males account for approximately 40% of calls to gambling addiction hotlines, and upwards of 20 million men are in debt or have been in debt as a result of sports betting.

In 2024, the Arkansas Problem Gambling Council announced it had seen a 22% increase in calls for help with problem gambling — driven largely by sports betting.

And a 2025 survey found one in four sports bettors worry that they cannot control their gambling. Some studies have also linked legal sports betting to increases in divorce, binge drinking, domestic violence, and violent crime.

It’s time to admit that the national experiment with sports betting has failed. The cost of sports betting isn’t just measured in dollars and cents. It’s also measured in human lives.

On the whole, most Americans do not believe sports betting has been good for society or good for sports. The NFL and sportsbooks have actually faced consumer protection lawsuits over the harm that gambling causes.

As powerful corporations try to make gambling part of everyday life, it’s important for Arkansas to protect its citizens and families from predatory gambling. Otherwise gambling addiction will simply continue wreaking havoc and hurting families in our state.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Arkansans Wagered $56.6M+ on Sports in August

Gambling,

Arkansans wagered more than $56.6 million on sports betting in August, according to data Family Council received from the Department of Finance and Administration.

Sports betting is legal to varying degrees across most of the country, and Arkansans are on track to wager nearly a billion dollars on sports this year. But a growing body of evidence shows sports betting is corrupting sports and ruining lives.

Federal prosecutors have announced indictments in connection with bribery and point-shaving schemes to fix college basketball games.

Major League Baseball players have been accused of rigging pitches to defraud sportsbooks. The NFL and the NBA have also dealt with corruption and scandals tied to sports betting.

The Institute for Family Studies (IFS) reports almost one in four young men say they gamble daily. That’s concerning, because research shows that young men who wager on sports may be at increased risk of physical and mental harm. Some studies have also linked legal sports betting to increases in divorce, binge drinking, domestic violence, and violent crime.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Ethics and Public Policy Center, researchers at UCLA, and bankruptcy attorneys across the country all say sports betting is driving a wave of financial problems like credit card delinquencies and bankruptcies.

Can Arkansans really afford to wager millions of dollars on sports every month?

Family Council has prepared a list of practical steps Arkansas could take to address predatory sports betting.

As powerful corporations try to make gambling part of everyday life, it’s important for Arkansas to protect its citizens and families from predatory gambling. Otherwise, gambling addiction will simply continue wrecking lives and hurting families in our state.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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DraftKings Allegedly Used AI to Target Problem Gamblers

Gambling,
Photo Credit: WPT European Championship via Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0).

A bombshell investigation by The New York Times alleges that sportsbook DraftKings built an artificial intelligence model specifically designed to identify the gamblers most likely to lose — and then showered them with promotions to keep them betting.

The report raises serious questions about sportsbooks’ ethics, oversight, and regulation.

Sports betting is legal to varying degrees in most U.S. states — including Arkansas, where people are on track to wager nearly a billion dollars this year on sports betting alone. But a growing body of evidence shows this type of gambling is causing serious harm.

According to The New York Times, DraftKings developed a machine-learning model that scored users based on their playing frequency, daily account balances, and the ratio of their losses to total wagers. The higher a user’s score, the more DraftKings targeted them with promotions. A former DraftKings data analyst who helped build the system told the paper, “The best investment would be a problem gambler.” A second former analyst put it even more bluntly: “It is as predatory as it sounds.”

In other words, DraftKings used cutting-edge technology to identify and target the gamblers who may have been most vulnerable to addiction.

The article says DraftKings disputes the characterization, saying its promotions go to customers who show “sustained, engaged use” of the platform.

We have written before about how predatory sports betting is. It’s corrupting sports, and it’s ruining lives.

A growing body of evidence shows sports betting is causing serious financial problems. People who gamble on sports may be twice as likely to suffer from gambling problems — and when it happens online, the rate is even higher.

Legalized gambling has become a blight nationwide — including Arkansas. Arkansans wager an average of $2.5 million a day on sports betting alone. But the tax revenue from sports betting has not improved Arkansas’ roads or boosted the economy.

It’s worth pointing out Arkansas could stop sportsbooks from using AI to target gamblers the way DraftKings has been accused of doing.

Sports betting is not a harmless pastime. As powerful corporations try to make gambling part of everyday life, it’s important for Arkansas to protect citizens and families from predatory gambling. Otherwise, problem gambling will simply hurt more and more people in our state.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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