New Jersey Ex Gambling Insider James Talks Responsible Gambling, Athletes being the Sports Bettors and Gambling Treatment

Sports betting didn’t just get bigger; it got faster, simpler, and stickier. We dig into how “responsible gambling” became the industry’s soft sell while the real engine—microbetting, live props, and algorithmic nudges—pushes users toward rapid, compulsive loops. Our guest shares why he walked away from a sportsbook-backed media role and how the game changed once wagers moved from the window to the phone, from a weekend bet to constant yes or no clicks designed to escalate.

We get real about who’s most at risk: 18 to 24-year-olds with competitive fire, athletes who think their game IQ protects them, and families that unknowingly normalize “small” parlays. The warning is clear and actionable—delete the apps, avoid the group chats that make betting feel normal, and redirect that energy into training, study, and long-term investing that compounds rather than consumes. Along the way, we unpack the broader wellness bill: sleep erosion, worse food choices, hijacked attention, and a nervous system stuck on high alert. This isn’t only a money problem; it’s mental, emotional, and physiological.

We also challenge false comfort from league policies and integrity talk. Trimming limits on a few markets won’t fix a product built for speed and repetition. What moves the needle is early prevention, honest education in schools and gyms, and accessible support that isn’t steered by industry partnerships. If states collect treatment dollars, people should be able to use them—yet access stays hard while advertising stays easy. We argue for a public health approach that puts player protection and prevention first and offers clear alternatives that build wealth and well-being over time.

If this resonates, share it with someone who needs a straight answer about betting apps. Subscribe for more candid conversations on recovery, prevention, and performance—and leave a review to help others find the show.

Chapters

• 0:00 Return And Mission Reset
• 2:45 Guest’s Industry Past And Exit
• 3:37 The Myth Of “Responsible Gambling”
• 6:46 Tech, Access, And Addiction Design
• 9:45 Microbetting And Live Bets Escalation
• 12:03 Targeting Youth And Unknown Histories
• 16:03 Wellness Costs Beyond Lost Money
• 18:39 Advice To Young Athletes
• 23:15 Parents, Apps, And Neural Risk

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Uh, we're back after three years, Houston, New Jersey. 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. Life is about work. And the love unconditionally. Just put much more love out there and watch much more love return. Remember, recovery is beautiful. Your EQ is your IQ, and you cannot outthink an emotional issue. Now, what we're encouraging people to do is go to the website lifeiswonderful. Gives you tips on how to start recovery because we all start on our own first before we actually seek help. A lot of ways to get natural dopamine, natural serotonin, endorphins, oxytocin, start healing the brain, detoxing, and then you're starting to live a different way. Now, let's jump back in. How are we doing? How are we feeling today, James?

SPEAKER_01: 1:15

It's been three years, huh?

SPEAKER_00: 1:17

It's been three years. March of 23.

SPEAKER_01: 1:20

Time flies.

SPEAKER_00: 1:21

Yeah, episode 75, and now we're on episode 225. So there lots happened.

SPEAKER_01: 1:28

Yeah. Well, yeah, lots happened for the worst, but lots happened.

SPEAKER_00: 1:32

In terms of gambling, not in terms of our lives.

SPEAKER_01: 1:35

Sure.

SPEAKER_00: 1:37

So tell uh just briefly, just a quick history. You're you live in New Jersey, you grew up in New Jersey, and obviously you were in the gambling industry. Now you talk a lot more about prevention on just, and that's how the questions will go. Any background you want the audience to remember?

SPEAKER_01: 1:58

Well, the only thing about you know my story to kind of give a condensed version is uh as it pertains to what we speak about, the industry, the prevention. I was in the industry briefly in 2019 on television at a regional sports network in New York City, sponsored by DraftKings. Um I left under my own terms. Um there were some reasons, personal reasons, personal um uh situation with the network, I didn't agree with, but eventually I walked away from the industry completely because of the way the industry was conducting itself, the lack of prevention, the lack of disclaimer, the advertising, all the fun stuff that we're gonna speak about the next half hour.

SPEAKER_00: 2:45

All right. Well, that actually kind of leads into question one. We talked about briefly back in 23. And so people don't remember, you know, 21 is when things started ramping up with sports betting. The New Jersey was the state, the number one state. They sued the NCAA. They were the first state to start the sports betting outside of Nevada. And it's an industry term talking about responsible gambling. And they do this just so they can actually try to tell the world that they're trying to do something worthwhile, something that's helping the gambler when we both know that the industry only cares about trying to make as much money as they can per day, per hour. So let's go back to those two words: responsible gambling. And unfortunately, it's not just the gambling industry, it's also the people that are trying to help the compulsive gambler, the problem gambler. We see the National Council on Problem Gambling, we see a lot of state councils talking about they have a responsible gambling model. Share your views, because I remember you know you talked about that they were complete opposite terms. Talk about those two words, responsible gambling. Where are you still? Okay, and what have you seen these past three years in terms of the damage that it's doing?

SPEAKER_01: 4:12

Well, I mean, first of all, it's a conflict in terms. I mean, this was on the onset uh what the gambling industry put in place as uh their definition of social good, when in reality, all it is is a message of inclusion to welcome the end user into the room. You know, do this responsibly. But what it's doing is it's kicking open a door to an addictive, harmful product, uh, as we know. And once you get in, as we've seen, and as we know personally, how hard it is to get out. And really what they've done is they've put a team of answer to the dollar ancillaries in place, whether it be media or whether it be people in the gambling industry, to offer this as bet responsible. All it's doing is putting all the responsibility on the gambler. A lot of them who aren't fully aware of the scope of this product, the devastation, the harm that it does, the addictive nature of the product. This is a loaded product line that we weren't accustomed to when we started gambling 20, 30 years ago. I mean, the phone and the technology and the media and the accessibility is where this conversation begins to separate. But my biggest rub with this responsible gambling, whoever it is, and we don't have to go through all the players and the names because I don't want to start that side of things, because you know how I feel. And if anybody's following me on social media and talks to me, we all know those players. But what they're doing essentially is walking into a room to give a conversation to a bunch of people who they don't know the first thing about. 21 to 24 year olds. Okay, you don't know anything about these people. You don't know about their wellness history, you don't know about their financial history, you don't know about their trauma, their pain, what they've come from. If they have addiction in their blood, in their DNA, and you're gonna open the door and offer them a gateway to this product, and then walk away from them and leave them with this product in the hands of the industry that's paying their check. And then you introduce that.

SPEAKER_00: 6:31

And then you introduce alcohol, drinking some beers, and then that just accelerates the gambling.

SPEAKER_01: 6:37

It all coexists. Look, I mean, you know, it all coexists with one another. The whole addiction tree of established the establishment, the products, the alcohol. I mean, I know guys that didn't get broken by gambling financially, but their brains were so kidnapped by the activity, you know, that it dominated their life. They never had time to cook a piece of fish and broccoli. It was always picking up fast food and always rushing to get in front of their parlies at seven o'clock. So this is a loaded wellness conversation. It's not a one-size fit all, just gambling, just money.

SPEAKER_00: 7:11

Would you agree? Right. Well, you never would tell someone just shoot up heroin responsibly. Just do responsible coke snorting. I mean, no one says that. And I always quite gambling with drugs and including alcohol. There's no such thing as once you cross that line, you're not going to do anything responsibly or in moderation or have some type of check marks. It doesn't work.

SPEAKER_01: 7:41

All you need to see is the evidence, you know, the whole moderation myth. I mean, look at the obesity rates in this country. You can eat moderately, just have the pizza and the hot dogs on the weekend, and nobody moderates. Who moderates? These are all the products. I mean, as we see what's going on, I mean, you know, with the food, that's a good place to start. But it's gambling, what's alcohol? And then later on, after all the evidence comes out, aligned with the big tobacco playbook, we see how many people suffer. Tens of millions of people. It's just in time. But the difference between the big tobacco playbook and this gambling playbook is the rapid speed of technology and the algorithm and the constant in your face and the email. Big tobacco didn't have those components.

SPEAKER_00: 8:29

But and also how the gambling industry has changed over the three years, because what it just started out is I'm going to bet on the game. I'm going to bet on the total. And now this constant push into prop betting, and then with all the whole things of now, and they're making it easier, like yes or no, high or low, like, you know, whether it's number of yards, whether it's pitches, home runs, you know, on different types of sports. And then the live betting, which is accelerated, even though now some of them are trying to scale it back. Major League Baseball is looking at the live pitching. Some NCAA, some states are trying to curtail some prop betting within their college athletes. But those are the other things that I that are accelerating the destruction. Because, like you said, anyone who's 21 to 25, they're not going to be able to know how the industries manipulate them in other different ways to crash faster. It took me 20 plus years from 12 to 33. Uh, these guys don't have a chance.

SPEAKER_01: 9:43

Uh, you brought up a point about the MLB. All the MLB did was reduce limits. And again, you know, that we're just keep on, we stay on this financial topic because everybody thinks this is only a money conversation. You know, it's a mental, it's an emotional, it's a physiological, it's a wellness conversation. Forget about gambling. Gambling comes after. All this stuff comes much later. So all they did was shut down the limits. But what this microbetting product, which should be banned, and I said that in 21, 22, I mean, uh just from the eye to the brain to the hand to the phone, and you know, it uh creates a rapid impulse control disorder. And and you know, I I can handle it, and you can handle it, but I don't know if we could have handled it at 21, 22 years old.

SPEAKER_00: 10:38

Exactly. Hey, well, let's uh let's jump into question two. What people don't realize is that all the different types of gambling are designed to hit different demographics of people. And sports betters have historically been athletes, especially if you like both of us excelled in high school basketball. And a lot of people who play sports, number one, they have that competitive fire. Number two, they believe they understand the game because they played the game, whether it's football, basketball, baseball as the big three, and then they believe that they have an edge. What would you tell a lot of high school athletes right now, where you know, they got that feeling like they're invincible. You know, you're 17, you're in the weight room, you're on the court, you're on the field. What would you tell them about sports betting when they're talking a lot about and they're about to embark on a college career, whether they're going to college to play sports or just gonna just go to college and then they're gonna be on their own?

SPEAKER_01: 11:53

I mean, this is a simple answer from me, and a simple, you know, since day one of my advocacy, you know, this has been about avoidance to these products, to these people. This has been about alternative. You know, I I work out of the gym. I'm at the gym four or five times a week. I got some 19 and 20 year olds in there who I speak to, and they're interested. These kids want to be led. Some of them, and some of them think they know everything, but they they do listen. I mean, they're goofy and they screw around, but they do listen, and I just tell them straight up, delete this app. Don't even start. Get away from all these kids that are doing it. They're offering zero value to your life. The smokers, the drinkers, they're making you worse. So if you're interested in making money, because these kids want to make money fast. Right. And, you know, some of these three kids that I'm talking about, they're all locked into crypto and they don't even, you know, they don't even work. And I, where did they get this money? Their parents put them down. So this one kid's telling me his parents, father put him down with like$100,000 to get kicked into crypto. And I mean, I don't know much about that, but I guess it's uh aligned with the day trading. So if they're making short money or making increases, they're drawing and they're putting that into sports gambling, and it's just this whole revolving camster around the wheel, and they're gonna end up, you know, dead out, just a matter of time. But, you know, that's my whole thing. If you want to make money, like I told him, like, I have a financial guy who's a decent guy, honest guy, trusted guy. I'll put you in touch with him. You know, kick him 200, 300, 500 a month, whatever you're forking over to FanDuel and DraftKings, you know, maybe seven, eight, ten years from now, you'll have a Nestex sitting there. You'll have a few hundred thousand dollars. Because I'm gonna tell you right now, if you stay the course for gambling, you're gonna have nothing but debt.

unknown: 13:44

Right.

SPEAKER_01: 13:45

Nothing but debt. And we know this. And I mean, the evidence is out there, it's mounting every day. We're not hearing about 99% of the people are winning and making money and buying jewelry and buying BMWs and buying this and that, the other. We're hearing about just this, you know, the public getting carved up financially. And then all the emotional strife and all the physiological stuff. That comes much later. I sit here at 50 years old and I see the guys, 40, 45, 50, 52 years old. I see them now. They couldn't get out. They they they stayed with the course, they stayed with the booze, they stayed with the drugs, they stayed with the um, you know, whatever the vice was, the food, whatever it is, I see them all now. They're completely physiologically eroded, they're dead out financially, they're broke, they're divorced, they're a mess. And it's heartbreaking to me, really, isn't it? I don't got a phone call. So, yeah, that that's where my that's my take on that. And you know, like I said, I'll get you kicked in with a financial guy. I don't want anything from it. I don't make a dime from it, but I'd rather see you, you know, go on a different path where you're gonna have something in five, seven, eight, ten years. Right.

SPEAKER_00: 14:50

I I hear you. That's I mean, a lot of times people don't realize is that is the way to uh to kind of do it. Like they say, time can help you make money. You know, all the time when you're trying to make that short hit, and I think, and I know a lot of people here in Houston, you know, I've heard the same story that parents give their kids some stock, and then they either convert the stock, they do some option trading, and then they try to do sports betting. And it's just not a winning formula.

SPEAKER_01: 15:22

Well, let's rewind that. You said a key word, the parents, which to me, they're a huge part of this problem. I mean, you know, they don't want to be educated, they just want to believe what suits their mind and not what is. They don't want anything to-I mean, I know there's people that I know that open up accounts for their kids with DraftKings, 19 years old, in their name with their cards, but they gotta, you know, we monitor it. It's only$5 parlays. And what they don't, what they're missing, again, whatever the financials are, the financials are. But once you create that impulse control disorder, and once it penetrates a neural, a neurological growing transmission brain that's not fully developed, you can't get it out of you. I sit here at 50 years old, man. I haven't bet in six years. The majority of my gambling, compulsive gambling, was in my 20s. And to this day, as much as it drives me crazy, I left the industry. I walked away from tons of money that whole life, whatever it was. And to this day, you see me on social media scrutinizing the industry and talking prevention, all these things. I still gravitate and get pulled, and it's much easier with the phone, to know what some of these lines are. It's crazy. I can't help myself. And I have no urge to watch a game, to gamble a game, to get in that environment. Nothing. But I mean, I could probably tell you what some of the lines were on some of these playoff games. I haven't watched a football game in years. Hand to God. I mean, I don't watch the NFL, but I mean, I mean, I did watch some college years ago, but you know, and a lot of it's from the algorithm. Like, I'll catch some stuff. Look, if you're talking prevention and you're talking harm and you're talking the things that I talk about, the algorithm doesn't know. They're just gonna spit at you the fan dull ads, the lines, the bad beats, all these people screaming and bitching and moaning that the games are rigged, things that we were talking about five years ago, things that I was talking about 15 years ago, and people were laying, oh, you're a conspiracy theorist, and you're negative, and now they're saying the same things.

SPEAKER_00: 17:35

Right. There's so many more games that are fixed as well as they're partners.

SPEAKER_01: 17:41

Right, they're pleasant, but it's the truth. Nobody wants to hear the truth, but it's the unpleasant truth because it gets in the way of their illusion and their fantasy and their ego and all the money they spend and all the time they spend, and they want to bring their kids and it's tradition and all these things. Most of these games, a lot of it's a big scam. You know what I mean? Like wrestling. They admitted wrestling was scripted years later, and it got bigger. So, you know, the consumerism isn't going anyplace. And I hear I've gotten in debates and arguments with lawyers and professors, and oh, they better take care of the integrity of the games. Why? For what? Unless you're talking player protection, and that's a different conversation, and I'm aligned with that side of it. But don't sit here and tell me that these games and sports fandoms are going to be impacted because a couple of these games are fixed or pointshade. Bullshit.

SPEAKER_00: 18:33

I hear you. Let's go into question three. Back to New Jersey. New Jersey was the first state that started this sports betting ball rolling. Supposedly, New Jersey collects X amount of dollars for treatment. I've talked to some other people in New Jersey, and they say it's hard to access this treatment money because obviously the state doesn't want to be ripped off, fraud. Wordy, do you see New Jersey implementing more treatment dollars, or where would you like these treatment dollars to be placed?

SPEAKER_01: 19:16

I mean, I'm a prevention guy, and you know that about me. So in my fantasy world, there'd be dollars allocated by the state for pure prevention advocates or activists like myself to get into communities, to get into schools, and offer a loaded conversation to people that don't haven't been taught any better before it becomes their choice. You know, yes, without qu and and you know, without question, the industry should be responsible for a lot of those recovery dollars. I mean, they're just making so much money, hand over fist, and it's all based on public loss. So they Have a responsibility in that conversation too. But I, you know, I'm not well versed in the recovery uh bullet points of what's necessary, and I'm not a big recovery guy with all due respect to what you do and what a few of the other guys do who I have great respect for and learned a lot for from and follow. But you know, and I I don't know if you know Brian Hatch, but I've been on his podcast a few times as well. And I had the same thing with him, and it's just like the recovery stuff, it's so status quo for the harmed addict. It's the later chapters, it just goes into a system and ends up there if people hit rock bottom and they're willing to get themselves some help. Where I fall in is the chapter one and the chapter two and the prelude part of this to avoid some of those people going to recovery. You know, it's gonna be inevitable. People are gonna need that treatment without question. But if you can intervene early and catch a few of them, I mean, it's you know, because the recovery is gonna be hell. It's gonna be a shit show for these kids. They're not gonna have any place to run from this.

SPEAKER_00: 21:24

It it's right, you know, it's or they're taking a lot of money from their parents' own retirement.

unknown: 21:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 21:31

Parents start to bail them out.

SPEAKER_01: 21:33

Again, it's a public health, it's a wellness, it's all those things we talk about. But I mean, like, you know, it just gets to the point where, you know, why aren't we doing more on day one? Why? I mean, look, exactly. They don't want guys like us around. I get it. They don't want guys like me around talking to 18 to 24-year-olds about not making donations and increasing their business and their expansion. They don't want, you know, certain guys like are marginalized. We're definitely marginalized, you know what I mean? But even the stop predatory gambling, and I love Les. I love what Les is doing. Some of the people he have work, you know, he has working for him, they do great work and they they press hard, they push hard, you know, for federal regulation, and they're 100% accurate. But in the quote unquote meantime, every day with the expansion and these products and the advertising and the accessibility, we're losing more kids and families to this. And it's so underreported, as you know, and I know. We don't hear about all the stuff that's going on. You probably hear more than I do because you're in the recovery, you know, you fall into the recovery the uh circle, and I don't. You know, I'm on here trying to convince kids to stay the hell away from this and find something else to do. You know, you're helping them when they don't listen to me.

SPEAKER_00: 23:06

I try to I try to talk at any stage.

SPEAKER_01: 23:09

Yeah, and I mean you you, you know, and what I like about you is you're not afraid to go into that side of things too, you know, the prevention side. The most recovery advocates, you know, I I mean the thing that drives me crazy is like we talk about, and I don't even want to want to like mention these, you know, harm reduction groups and advocacy groups that are all partnered. They're partnered with the NCAA, they're partnered with NTANE, they're partnered with FanDuel, they're partnered with DraftKings. So they're compartmentalizing the conversation on what they can say and what they can't. I mean, they're not really talking about the mental health side of this or the physiological side. These are people that could not do any of this responsibly back in the I got you. Ready? All right, back in the Stone Age now. Could they imagine doing this now? I mean, I think it would be harder. I'd be taken, I mean, I couldn't handle it. This thing in your pocket all day.

SPEAKER_00: 24:07

Exactly. You know, always be an urge because people don't realize that the winning phase is probably gonna be shorter, the losing phase will be shorter, but the desperation phase is gonna come fast.

unknown: 24:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 24:21

And then you just don't know, and then you're like, and then you're upside down and well the CPT, and and you know, I and I know we're we're we're running out of time here, but the CPTSD part of it has got to be examined because the stress and the trauma and all of the triggers for these young kids.

SPEAKER_00: 24:39

Yeah, the young that's why there's more yeah, the anxiety is going up, the depression is going up.

SPEAKER_01: 24:45

I mean and nobody wants to talk about these things because they're too unpleasant. But it's the reality.

unknown: 24:50

Right.

SPEAKER_01: 24:51

Nobody wants to do reality. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 24:55

All right. Well, I appreciate the time this uh afternoon, and with that, we are gonna conclude this episode of the 1% in recovery podcast.