Zack Everett put his gambling addiction, financial losses and personal story of hitting rock bottom on display for all of Colorado in Sunday’s Denver Post. He selflessly exposed his darkest moments in the hope that others struggling with this mental health disorder might find hope in their hour of despair.
Colorado’s public officials have a challenge before them in the next decade: preventing gambling addiction from becoming a public health crisis.
As The Postap Noelle Phillips described in her three-part series, when Colorado voters legalized sports betting in 2019, they put 24/7 access to online sportsbooks in the pocket of every Coloradan. The result has been $30.65 billion in wagers and a staggering $2.33 billion in losses and fees since 2020.
Despite some big wins that fueled emotional highs for Everett, he ultimately lost big to sports betting. He went into debt chasing his losses, borrowed money and a car from his father, pawned valuable possessions, and lost relationships with friends and family. Everettap dad stood by him through it all, pushing his son into a treatment center in another state. He has not gambled since April 2024.
“Itap such a hidden problem,” Everett told Phillips. “You’re definitely not alone. I know how scary it is. If you do not address it, itap only going to get worse. You’re not going to win yourself out of whatever hole you’re in. You can’t bet yourself out of it.”
How do we prevent more Coloradans from falling into the trap of gambling addiction?
A comprehensive K-12 education program is essential to teach kids two important lessons: the house always wins and the science of a brain’s addiction to dopamine hits.
This is not a novel idea, as Phillips reported.
Arty Smith, a teacher at Kent Denver, has developed a data-driven education program that explains the probability, statistics, modeling powers and hold rates that fuel multibillion-dollar companies, guaranteeing a profit despite the “risk” associated with a wager. The Post also launched a handy tool online that analyzes data from Colorado’s sports betting corporations.
Phillips found someone who had actually made money from sports betting — beating the house consistently enough to bring in real money. Josiah Clarke said after he won $24,000 in two football seasons, FanDuel and DraftKings promptly limited his bets to less than $100. FanDuel and DraftKings told Phillips that they limit users who appear to be having problems with gambling.
The are equally important for kids to understand. There is a double-whammy dopamine effect that sports wagering apps utilize to get users hooked. Some people are predisposed to having a seriously addictive response to the release of chemicals in the brain when they win, but everyone suffers the effects to some extent.
The more Colorado’s next generation understands about addiction and the statistical likelihood that the house will win, the more likely they are to enjoy gambling responsibly. We learned this lesson from nicotine addiction, where cigarette and tobacco use plummeted within a single generation, not because nicotine magically became less addictive, but because of a robust, industry-funded, anti-smoking campaign that taught children about lung cancer. When the dark secret was unveiled, the choice for millions of teenagers and young adults was easy -- smoking is not worth a shorter lifespan.
We expect a similar effect with sports betting. When Colorado kids know the tricks of the trade, they’ll make smarter decisions for the rest of their lives, whether itap wagering on sports, putting coins in a slot machine, buying a lottery ticket or playing bingo at the local parlor. And as a bonus, some of the knowledge of addiction might help them set their cellphones down a little more often, too.
Some industry-funded addiction groups take a neutral position on gambling that might prevent a fully transparent curriculum about industry practices and dopamine-seeking behaviors. Colorado lawmakers may need to intervene to ensure that the industry is helping to fund programs that are truly honest and actually prevent unhealthy gambling practices.
The Denver Post editorial board supported Proposition DD in 2019 and recommended that voters legalize online sports betting. The board wrote at the time: "We cannot pretend that there isn’t a dark side to this bill, however. Compulsive gambling can upend lives, ruin relationships and harm families. There will be folks who take the pastime too far, risk too much and struggle to stop the behavior that has become like a drug. The bill does include funding for gambling addiction treatment programs, but everyone is aware that will not prevent the problem."
Now, six years into this experiment, we can clearly see that the answer to prevention is an industry-funded early education program that is brutally honest about the risks and rewards of gambling.
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