The tension between the rise of legalized sports betting and the specter of gamblers developing ruinous addictions came into sharp focus last week, between the stark recommendations of a nonpartisan Pennsylvania commission and a baseball star’s social media post.
Lawmakers could impose restrictions on sportsbook operators, such as banning in-game microbets and curtailing VIP programs, the Joint State Government Commission wrote in a 126-page study on sports betting and interactive gambling that was published July 13.
A bill to prohibit microbets and other sports gambling products that could amplify addiction is currently being drafted, said State Rep. Tarik Khan, who introduced the resolution that authorized the commission’s research.
“The scope of the problem is worse than we thought,” said Khan (D., Philadelphia).
He referenced surveys, cited by the study, showing that 48% of men ages 18 to 49 have an account with at least one sportsbook company, while 52% reported wagering an increased amount of money after they experienced losses.
“Sometimes you have to be very clear on what companies can and can’t do, especially when money is involved,” Khan said.
Americans spent a record $165 billion on sports betting in 2025, and were projected to wager at least $3 billion on the recent FIFA World Cup.
Analysts have predicted that microbets — wagers that can be made on individual plays and outcomes during a live game — could grow by $14 billion by the end of the decade.
The sports gambling industry is likely to oppose eliminating such a lucrative product, according to Joe Maloney, the president of the Sports Betting Alliance, a national advocacy organization whose members include FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, bet365, and Fanatics.
“I’m just not sure that something as proscriptive as banning that market achieves what is the stated endgame,” Maloney said. “I’m not entirely sure what the problem is that they’re trying to solve.”
The same day the state study came out, Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper took to Instagram to explain how FanDuel had acquired a personalized video he made in 2024, which the sportsbook company then sent to Terry Thompson, a local VIP bettor who suffered from a gambling addiction.
Harper wrote that he had recorded the 21-second video — a copy of which was obtained by The Inquirer — through the video service Cameo. In it, Harper said he was doing the video on behalf of a FanDuel host. But the nine-time All-Star later said that he was not aware that FanDuel intended to use the recording for business purposes or that Thompson had an addiction.
“Had I known FanDuel’s true intent,” Harper said, “I would not have made the video.”
The state study summarized litigation that sportsbook operators are facing in Pennsylvania, including a lawsuit filed in March by the Public Health Advocacy Institute on behalf of Thompson and another man against FanDuel and DraftKings. The suit alleges that the companies profit from the compulsive nature of microbets and use VIP rewards to entice gamblers to keep betting, even after they have displayed signs of addiction.
Thompson, of Montgomery County, lost nearly $2 million to wagers that he placed with FanDuel and DraftKings.
“These companies’ profit margins are dependent on people with gambling disorders,” Khan said. “It’s clear. Did [FanDuel] tell Bryce Harper that they wanted a video for a person who had lost that much money? Of course not.”
Maloney disputed Khan’s characterization of sportsbook companies’ business practices.
He compared VIP programs to customer rewards that retailers like Starbucks or T-Mobile offer, and said bettors can easily opt out of the programs or from receiving promotional offers.
“There’s no sustainable and durable future for this industry if it is not responsible and committed to integrity,” he said. “The notion that any industry can sustain itself across a small and finite number of users is completely false.”
The regulation battle
The commission, a research and policy development agency for the Pennsylvania legislature, retraced the evolution of sports betting in the U.S. and identified measures that lawmakers could pursue to curb addiction.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that states could establish their own sports betting laws, sportsbook companies and lesser-regulated prediction markets have entered into highly visible partnerships with professional sports leagues and teams that once were uniformly opposed to gambling.
The rise of the sports betting industry has helped fill state coffers. Pennsylvania recorded $6.7 billion in gambling revenue in 2025, with $602 million derived from sports wagers.
Tales of bettors who grew addicted to the instant dopamine spike of gambling on mobile devices or placing in-game microbets, then tumbled into a whirlpool of spiraling debt, have also become plentiful.
“States are waking up to the reality of sports betting now. They’re seeing a lot of the downstream impacts,” said Uttara Ananthakrishnan, an assistant professor of information systems at the University of Washington and an expert on online betting and gambling addiction.
Ananthakrishnan said new research suggests that gambling is not only associated with financial stress, but also can lead to more crime, suicide, divorce, child maltreatment, and housing instability, while siphoning state lottery revenue.
A recent study conducted by Pennsylvania State University’s Criminal Justice Research Center found that 2.5% to 6.4% of Pennsylvania adults may be problem gamblers, while a 2025 National Council on Problem Gambling survey showed that at least 20 million Americans reported experiencing problematic gambling behavior during the previous year.
The state commission study, meanwhile, cited a Harris Poll that found 79% of Americans believe gambling addiction is “as serious or more serious” than alcohol or drug addictions.
“It’s very, very disturbing,” Khan said.
The commission suggested that lawmakers could obtain customer data from gambling companies and have them independently analyzed to better understand which practices and products are most harmful.
It offered other, more immediate recommendations as well: preventing bettors from using credit cards to place deposits; mandating that customers limit the duration of their gambling and the frequency of their deposits; and forbidding companies from sending promotional offers to gamblers if they have logged out of their accounts, or using artificial intelligence to create individualized promos.
The study also suggested prohibiting gambling advertisements from public university campuses.
“I don’t sit here as a voice of the industry and deny the science,” Maloney said. “Gambling is an activity that can become problematic, and for some people, it can become addictive.”
But Maloney argued that many of the gambling studies and surveys that experts cite do not prove a direct link between gambling products and those who develop addictions.
“By all means, it’s a policy conversation that we absolutely want to have if the legislators are responding to highly publicized research, and confusing correlation with causation, and relying on national media interlopers who are largely transcribing academics and researchers in that space, and delivering clicky headlines,” Maloney said.
Ananthakrishnan said the negative effects are real.
“I am glad Pennsylvania is recognizing the problem and looking at evidence-based policy to curtail problem gambling,” she said.
Ananthakrishnan said the legislature should act on at least two proposals in the study: Require gambling apps to use their own data to predict problem gambling behavior, rather than using the information just to convince users to place more bets; and require the apps to release anonymized player stats that could be analyzed by an independent research entity.
“This creates a pathway to design evidence-based policies that directly address the specific mechanics of digital addiction without relying solely on operator self-reporting,” she said of the latter proposal.
‘Too close to the edge’
While legislators in Pennsylvania and other states, like New Jersey, grapple with how to enforce guardrails on sports betting, leagues continue to face headline-grabbing gambling scandals.
The NFL last week indefinitely suspended an Arizona Cardinals official, Ryan Gold, who is accused of leaking information about the team’s draft plans and participating in parlay bets on NFL and college games, ESPN reported. Gold has denied any wrongdoing through his attorney. The matter is now being investigated by the Arizona Department of Gaming.
In May, a DraftKings employee was arrested in Las Vegas and charged with conspiracy and related offenses for allegedly participating in a sports betting ring with a basketball player from Fresno State.
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, meanwhile, is reviewing the controversy over FanDuel’s use of the Bryce Harper video.
Major League Baseball’s commissioner, Rob Manfred, told reporters that Harper did not violate the league’s collective bargaining agreement, which allows players to engage in some promotional work for sportsbooks and casinos, provided they do not encourage betting on baseball.
The gaming control board has separately proposed new regulations to address gambling addiction, said a spokesperson, Doug Harbach.
Among the changes the board wants to implement are daily, weekly, and monthly limits on deposits that bettors can make to cashless gaming systems, and prohibiting companies from implying that betting is risk-free or a way to pay bills.
“We have to make sure there are safeguards,” said Khan, the state representative. “Sometimes people get too close to the edge.”
The Inquirer will continue to report on issues related to the growth of gambling addiction — among teens and adults — across Pennsylvania. If you, or someone you know, would like to speak with a reporter, please contact David Gambacorta or William Bender at dgambacorta@inquirer.com or wbender@inquirer.com
