THE ADDICTION THAT LOVES SUICIDE –
Feb. 27, 2022 – Delaney is one of 4.3% of adult residents in New York who are having problems related to their gambling, according to the New York Council on Problem Gambling. That percentage, representing more than 600,000 New Yorkers, is a number that people battling addiction like Delaney and affected others like Kelly, as well as prevention specialists and clinicians say will grow since mobile sports betting became legal in New York last month. In many ways, Delaney’s experience mirrors the overall image of sports betting in the state. As New York announced its big win in tax revenue from the billions of dollars spent in the early days of legal mobile sports betting, the underbelly is the real impact that legal mobile sports betting will have on the landscape of gambling addiction in New York. Even more troubling is that young people may be especially susceptible to developing gambling addictions because of how easy it is to place a bet on a phone, prevention specialists say.
Yet there is reason for hope. Technology is a double-edged sword, so while it makes access to gambling even easier, that same internet frontier gives Delaney and others with gambling addictions platforms to post podcasts to help cope, opening up a meaningful dialogue that once stayed buried.
