March Madness is underway and you can be sure a lot of bets are being made in North Carolina on who will go all the way. This month marks two years since the state legalized online sports gambling. In that time, North Carolina has seen a rise in gambling problems. Michelle Crouch wrote about it for North Carolina Health News and The Charlotte Ledger Business Newsletter. She joined WFAE’s Marshall Terry.
Marshall Terry: So, how much has this problem increased, and how do we know that?
Michelle Crouch: By all accounts, there's been a huge surge in gambling problems across the state since legalization. North Carolina has a problem gambling hotline. Calls to that hotline have more than tripled since legalization. Also, I talked to the man who runs Gamblers Anonymous meetings across the state. They are seeing record attendance. I also talked to local counselors here in Charlotte and other parts of North Carolina. They have a lot of stories about how they're seeing more young men coming in for help. A lot of these men are in some serious trouble. They're deep in debt, they're having to move back in with their parents, even some marriages that are falling apart.
Terry: You write that the average age of gamblers is getting younger. How young?
Crouch: So the average age of the callers to the gambling hotline has dropped from 43 to 38, but that number is actually being pulled down by large numbers of much younger men. The counselors tell me they're seeing a lot of men in their 20s, and even some college-age students and teenagers who are getting pulled in by the sports betting trend.
Terry: One specific example you mention is the son of a Charlotte woman. Can you tell me a bit more about it?
Crouch: I actually reached out to this woman because she is a counselor herself. Then she said she had her own story about what had happened with her college-aged son. Out of the blue, she gets a text message from someone she doesn't know.
It's another student at her son's college who said that her son owes hundreds of dollars to him. The text message said, basically, I'm not trying to get your son in trouble, but I'm really worried about him.
That was a wake-up call for the woman and her husband. Their son admitted he had a problem. He's now in counseling and recovering. The mom said the scary thing is that her son is smart, he's confident, he's very self-aware, and what would have happened if that friend hadn't reached out to her, and how many other kids are getting sucked in who don't have a friend that are going to take that kind of step?
Terry: Is any of this really surprising? I mean, if we put a beer tap in everyone's home, we would probably see a rise in problem drinking, so putting a casino in everyone's pocket seems bound to lead to some issues.
Crouch: No, it's not surprising at all. Even a couple of years ago, when lawmakers were talking about doing this, gambling experts and addiction specialists predicted that there were going to be problems.
Terry: When state lawmakers decided to legalize online sports gambling, they said North Carolina was losing money to other states that allowed it. Do you know how much money has been wagered in North Carolina the last two years and how much the state has made from it?
Crouch: $13.5 billion has been wagered in just the last two years, just in North Carolina. That's a lot more than the state projected. Because there's an 18% tax on that revenue, $262 million has come into the state in the last two years. That money is going toward college athletic programs. It's going toward some prevention and treatment. A lot of it is going into the state general fund.
Terry: How much is going to gambling prevention and treatment?
Crouch: The legislation requires $2 million a year to be set aside specifically for treatment and prevention. A lot of that is going to connect callers to the hotline with free therapy sessions with counselors who specialize in addiction. But there are experts who say that is not enough. A lot of other states instead will have a percentage of revenues that are tied to treatment and prevention. So there is going to be a push, I think, as these problems continue to surge, to increase that amount.
