Money, Follow the Money, Gambling, Sportsbetting - The Money Tells The Story

Money always tells the story—especially when it comes to gambling. As football season kicks off, the staggering prediction of $30 billion to be wagered this fall reveals America's dangerous relationship with sports betting. This raw, honest discussion exposes the industry's deceptive tactics and the true cost of gambling that extends far beyond financial losses.

Remember when gambling was just a $5 bet? Today's gambling landscape has transformed dramatically, with sportsbooks expecting to pull in $3 billion in profits this season alone. The industry sells the fantasy that gambling enhances entertainment value, but the reality is quite different. When you place a bet—whether it's $5 or $5,000—anxiety and tension become your companions, not enjoyment. To actually profit from sports betting, you need to hit at least 54% of your bets, a statistical improbability for most people.

The most devastating aspect isn't just the money that disappears into casinos and sportsbooks. It's the time wasted that could have been invested in relationships, personal growth, and pursuing genuine dreams. Unlike other addictions, gambling uniquely convinces people they need to "win back" what they've lost, creating a destructive cycle that's nearly impossible to break without help. While you're calculating odds and chasing losses, your million-dollar ideas remain undeveloped, and connections with loved ones weaken.

Your emotional intelligence and financial literacy are what truly determine your success in life. This football season, choose productivity over betting, meaningful connections over casino apps, and personal development over prop bets. Ready to transform your relationship with money and recovery? Join our Recovery Freedom Circle community where we support each other in living our best lives—because recovery truly is beautiful.

Chapters

• 0:00 Follow the Money
• 1:16 $30 Billion Football Betting Season
• 3:10 Gambling's False Promises
• 5:50 The True Cost of Gambling
• 8:30 Choosing Productivity Over Betting
• 10:50 Impact on Relationships and Recovery

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Money, follow the money. The money will always tell the story. Welcome again to another episode of the 1% in Recovery podcast, where we encourage you to laugh every day. Work hard, work hard in recovery, work hard in your relationships, work hard in your job, business, school, just work and love unconditionally. Just put much more love out there and watch much more love return to you. Always remember recovery is beautiful. Your EQ is your IQ and you cannot outthink an emotional issue. Now join the Facebook group Recovery Freedom Circle. Link down below. There's a community where we talk about the steps recovery, healing, dreams, goals, also anything that you're struggling with in terms of the steps recovery, anything other relationship-wise join the Facebook group Recovery Freedom Circle.

Speaker 1: 1:16

Now let's get into this week's episode Money gambling, sports betting. It's September again, september 2025. We embark on another school year. We embark on another football season. I live in Texas where three things always are important in Texas Football, especially high school football. Number one, that close second, is family and also faith. Now you see, when we talk about the fall, people get more excited because most people start their gambling careers with football, nfl or college. I happen to start with college football and we get all excited that somehow we're going to make some money. We're going to enjoy either watching our favorite teams, some players that we enjoy following, or we're going to find where Vegas got it wrong. Now the NFL has predicted that $30 billion will be wagered this fall. $30 billion, that's a big number. When I placed my first bet was 1978. I was 12 years old. I bet $5. Abraham Lincoln and I thought that was a lot of money. $30 billion, that's on all types. That's just betting on the lines. It's also doing all the prop betting, all doing the live betting. That's just doing everything. And so people know a good barometer is that the casinos and the sports books will pull in 10% of whatever the total wagered amount is. So the profits to all these sports betting companies casinos is going to be $3 billion. Well, guess what? The economy is going into? Some type of uncertainty. There's a lot of unknowns. Americans don't have $3 billion. Now.

Speaker 1: 3:29

The gambling industry likes to tell you that just gamble what you can lose. Well, americans can't lose $3 billion. The gambling industry will also tell you it's just entertainment. Now, when you're gambling that much money, that is beyond entertainment, that is compulsive gambling, problem gambling. You're about to enter into situational problem gambling and you're going to lose. Vegas has the line, because the other thing that the gambling industry loves to tell you is that gambling is going to make the games much more enjoyable. No, they do not. When you gamble even $5, $50, $500, $5,000, you are going to be anxious, you're going to be filled with tension. Most of the time, you're going to end up because you're not going to hit. You got to have to at least hit 54%.

Speaker 1: 4:26

We're just talking about football and sports betting to actually have a profitable year, to actually have a profitable year, and it doesn't happen. That's why the sportsbooks constantly are advertising. So here's the thing If you are thinking you're going to win, you're not, and that becomes a problem. Now the gambling industry just thinks that it's going to go on and on and on that somehow Americans just have all this money. Sometimes the people worldwide have all this money Because I was just at a PNC park in Pittsburgh watching a baseball game, watching the Pittsburgh Pirates. Just on the outfield wall there was three advertisers Bet365, mgm Casino and ESPN Bet. Of course you know the parks are going to push alcohol. Now they're pushing a lot of gambling and it's not just for fun. This is just getting into the subconscious, it becomes into the everyday Drink gamble, neither of one which will actually produce good positive effects on your body, either in your physical body with the alcohol, or your bank account with the gambling. That'll cause all kinds of health stuff.

Speaker 1: 5:52

And so I really want people to follow the money, because that's what they always talk about. Drugs, you know, they talk about the drugs that come into this country. Now, obviously, america has a high demand for drugs and I tell you know, when they go after the drug cartels, it's not about stopping the drugs or trying to follow the drugs. How they enter into the United States is what to do with all the cash that they collect and they have to get back out of the country. You always follow the money. The same thing with casinos. You got to follow the money.

Speaker 1: 6:24

Now they're very deceptive. They will say, well, gambling helps our educational system. That is false. Gambling money does not increase any educational state budget. All it does is remove money that was originally being taken out of the general fund because all states were already funding education. They did not need lotteries, they did not need sports books, they did not need casinos to fund education. States were already doing that. So it's not extra money, they're just utilizing the money directly from some type of gambling source.

Speaker 1: 7:05

So there's still all these dreams and I always say follow the money, because the money is what's really going to tell. Tellt, tell the sign of where America is emotionally and financially. We talk about what do kids need to learn? Financial literacy and emotional intelligence. And if you're gambling, and you're gambling constantly, that means you do not understand gambling, you don't understand the odds, you don't understand that you will lose in the long run. So that is not a financial viable situation where you can consistently make money. You will consistently lose money and you're emotionally disconnected Because the worst part about gambling is not the money. Even though we say follow the money and this episode's about follow the money, it's really about the time, the time that you are wasting, that you are wasting and not studying or not working. It's a little lost productivity. That is the real sad nature of follow the money. Because the emotional intelligence when you're gambling a lot, that means you're disconnected. You're also disconnected from a lot of your relationships with your spouse, with your parents, with your kids, or doing the things that you want to do, the healthy things.

Speaker 1: 8:26

We all have million dollar ideas. But here's the weird thing is is we'll spend more time dreaming about the stupid billion dollar Powerball and what we're going to do if we win the Powerball. Guess what? It's not going to happen that way. You're not going to just magically win all this money. So you're better off putting all the money, all the ideas that you million-dollar ideas that you have in your brain, and those will create this extra money, or put in that extra time into your job or business to create more money or create a side business, if money was truly the issue.

Speaker 1: 9:12

Gambling is about escape. There's so many different ways that we can talk about this gambling, but I always say let's just start off like following the money, because our dreams is what we should be chasing, not some fictitious, fake money, thinking that you're going to get money for nothing. Casinos, gambling, books they're not going to give you money, so it's designed for you to think you're going to win and then, unlike alcohol or drugs, where you don't wake up and go God, I need to get my money back. That's the sad part about gambling. People wake up thinking, oh, I got to go back and win back my money. Well, guess what? Your money's gone. That's no longer your money. It's the casino's money, it's the sportsbook's money and they will keep it and they will want more of your money and they constantly induce you to keep gambling. So I say follow the money, follow your own bank account, be realistic and once you cross the line, you cannot stop on your own. That's why you got people like me, the Recovery Freedom Circle. You have strong character. Strong leader can get you to start living differently, to get you to start seeing things where you get to live your best life, you get to live the life that you want.

Speaker 1: 10:32

So with that, I do want to conclude this episode, because I do think it's important, because in the beginning, when people come into a 12-step room or they go into therapy or they go into a treatment center, the only thing they see is the amount of money that was lost. They don't see all the other variables that have been impacted by gambling. How many other family members have been affected by your problem gambling, compulsive gambling, your gambling addiction? It will take down so many other people. So let's on this week, because it's the start of football season, because it's the start of the school year, to look at this. There's better things to do than fantasy sports than sports betting, than any of this other activity. So with that, do something productive this weekend. Weekend athletically reading, meditating, church, something Fill your body with something healthy and productive. With that we're going to conclude this episode of the 1% In Recovery Podcast.