Steve Deck, UMB’s director of public and occupational health, wins a grant to educate the UMB community about the issue of problem gambling.
Photo: Steve Deck, director of public and occupational health in the Enterprise Resilience division of Administration and Finance
Even if the only football game you watch is the Super Bowl, it’s impossible to miss the relentless onslaught of advertising that accompanies seemingly every sports broadcast these days. With the rise in popularity of legal sports gambling comes the rise of those who become addicted to the act of gambling.
With companies like FanDuel and DraftKings spending hundreds of millions to entice would-be gamblers, Steve Deck, DM, MBA — director of public and occupational health in the Enterprise Resilience division of Administration and Finance — is working to help those whose gambling has gone from pastime to problematic.
Deck recently applied for a grant from the Maryland Colleges and Universities Underage and Problem Gambling Prevention grant program offered through the Maryland Center of Excellence on Problem Gambling. His application was successful, and he awarded an initial grant of $7,000.
The decision to apply for the grant came after last year’s Super Bowl when several of Deck’s colleagues commented on how many people seemed to be gambling on the game, many from their smartphones. Deck pondered how this pervasive access to a highly addictive activity would impact society. When he saw the grant advertised, he decided to apply.
According to the application, the grant is awarded with three main goals. Per the application, “The first goal is to educate college and university communities at all levels, from administration to students, on the risks associated with gambling, how problem gambling can be prevented, and the resources for problem gambling help in the State of Maryland.”
The secondary and tertiary goals are to help the school “integrate problem gambling prevention into their current courses, programs, and policies to create sustainability” and to give the University “a wider reach to promote safer gambling practices, thus protecting public health among Maryland’s communities across the State, especially in younger populations.”
While legal gambling on sports is relatively new (the exception being animal track racing), the connection between sports and illegal gambling dates back to the inception of most sports. For example, gambling on baseball began around the time of the U.S. Civil War, which is actually a few years before the Cincinnati Red Stockings became the first professional baseball team. Gambling on football is thought to have begun in 1925, some 40 years before the first Super Bowl was played.
Viva Las Vegas
While sports gambling has been legal in Nevada since 1931, the majority of sports gambling in the United States had been underground. That all changed in 2018 when the Supreme Court struck down a federal law that banned sports betting outside of Nevada. This gave states the right to decide how to classify sports betting, which is currently it’s legal in 38 states. Since this time, the gaming industry went all-in on sports gambling. Last year, wagering on the Super Bowl alone exceeded $23 billion, up from $16 billion in 2023.
Because legalized sports gambling is relatively new, the impact data is still being compiled. But the data that has come in has foretold many troubling trends. In states where sports gambling has become legal, there has been a surge in debt collections, bank overdrafts, and bankruptcies. It’s reported that problem gambling also can lead to a deterioration of physical, mental, and emotional health, including an elevated risk of suicide and substance use disorders. The data suggests these impacts are concentrated among those households least able to afford them.
The grant was sponsored by the Maryland Center of Excellence on Problem Gambling, a program of the University of Maryland School of Medicine and funded by the Maryland Department of Health’s Behavioral Health Administration. While the amount of the grant is relatively modest, Deck looks at it as an opening salvo and hopes to build on the initial efforts moving forward. For now, most of his efforts will be geared toward generating awareness of the resources available to those with a problem. This includes establishing a presence at campus events such as student and staff orientations, health-related events, and any other place where he can reach people.
If you or someone you love might be struggling with their gambling, you can access resources by visiting the Center of Excellence on Problem Gambling’s website, or by calling the free, confidential helpline at 1-800-GAMBLER. Both of these sources have resources for the gambler as well as those who are impacted by someone else’s gambling.
The Numbers Game
Here are some statistics and facts about gambling from the Maryland Center of Excellence on Problem Gambling:
- One in 10 college students has a gambling addiction, 1 in 6 of those addicted to gambling will attempt suicide, and 1 in 5 bankruptcies is linked to problem gambling.
- 90 percent of Maryland adults have gambled in their lifetime.
- The most common forms of gambling are lottery, casino, and sports betting.
- Those who gamble are more likely to use tobacco products, alcohol, and/or illegal drugs compared to non-gamblers.
- According to the Statewide Gambling Prevalence in Maryland survey, 4 percent of Maryland adults 18 and over are disordered gamblers.
- Some minority populations were more likely to be disordered gamblers; Maryland adult African Americans (8 percent), and Asians (3 percent) are at equal or increased risk of problem gambling compared to the white population (3 percent). More data needs to be collected on the Hispanic population.
- 20 percent of Marylanders who gambled on sports online were disordered gamblers.
NOTE: Citations for above can be found on the Maryland Center of Excellence on Problem Gambling website at mdproblemgambling.com.