Sports Betting Ensnares Young Men with ADHD
Hamilton College's Stephen Wu, PhD. explores how sports betting can be uniquely triggering for some people-especially when apps are always within reach. We break down the "loop" that can form between cues (scores, odds, notifications), quick rewards (wins or the rush of a bet), and relief/escape (betting to change feelings). For viewers with ADHD, we discuss how symptoms like impulsivity, difficulty delaying gratification, and high reward-sensitivity can make the decision to place another bet feel more automatic than intentional.
You'll also hear about why gambling can start to look like "management" (handling stress, boredom, or restlessness) and how that pattern can quietly grow into harmful or compulsive behavior. We cover practical harm-reduction ideas such as reducing easy access to betting platforms, adding friction to "one-tap" actions, setting limits with support, using reminders and routines, and getting professional help for ADHD and gambling-related urges. The goal isn't shame-it's understanding patterns, reducing triggers, and building safer habits with the right support.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Joining me now is Dr. Wu of Hamilton University, sorry, three, two, one. Well, Dr. Wu, it's great to see you. Thanks for joining us on the program this morning. Thanks for having me, Jeffrey. All right.
Sports gambling, as you know, and I know you've documented in your research, it has proliferated I think over 38 states. It continues to grow. I want to get your reaction to that first, doctor, and then we can talk about some of the research as it applies to young men who may have ADHD.
So let's talk about the proliferation, what that means, what are some concerns you may have?
Stephen Wu, PhD., Hamilton College
Certainly. So, you know, accessibility has increased greatly, and certainly I think this varies a little bit. There's certainly going to be some folks who engage in some type of recreational level gambling where it's pretty modest or moderate.
And I think the concerns obviously are when that becomes a little bit too much in the sense that whether addiction comes in, whether significant financial investments that come in and people who really should be using that money for, you know, necessities and for daily living are using that, you know, are using it too much and spending too much on betting and getting into some pretty bad habits, potentially also, you know, leading to some financial difficulties.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
So let's talk about, I want to ask you about the demographics and then we'll get to young men. But who uses, who is a target for the sports betting and prediction market firms? Is it young men?
Is it young women? Is it older men, older women? Who typically are, or is it all the above?
Anybody? My grandparents? Well, they're, they're gone, but when, if they were alive, would they be a target?
Stephen Wu, PhD., Hamilton College
Sure. I think anybody certainly could be a target, but if you're thinking about who is most likely to be engaged in the sort of more heavy usage, certainly as young men, right? So we're talking anywhere from 18 on up to 25, 35, right?
So there is a range in terms of the little bit difference for really young men. They may not have as much of the resources or they may be using like their parents' money, right? So if you're a college student, maybe you have a little bit of spending money or using that some from your families.
Once you're in your twenties and thirties and you're making some money, younger men sort of a little bit older than say college age. That's I think where there were a lot of these, you know, these companies are going to be making a lot of the money and especially men in terms of actually following sports and also engaging in this, in this betting that really is the sort of the big target.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
So, you know, I like sports. We're talking offline about the Baltimore Colts, Baltimore Ravens, the Philadelphia Eagles. I like sports, but I'm not inclined.
I see the risk in it. What makes this attractive to people? Why are people keyed into this, this service or, you know, into gambling?
Stephen Wu, PhD., Hamilton College
Yeah. It's a good question. I think that may also be a little harder for me to answer because again, like you, I follow sports.
I enjoy watching sports. The idea of gambling or betting on the outcomes or not even just outcomes, it could be, you know, who's going to, who's going to actually throw a certain number of touchdowns, who's going to score first in a game. Those types of things also are not as attractive to me, but certainly I do know contacts, friends, co-workers who engage in that in modest amounts or sometimes in some cases in much more significant amounts.
And some of it could be entertainment, excitement. It makes the games that they watch something that they follow even more. Some of it again could be sort of engaging habits where people are sort of risk-taking and sort of like the thrill of the potential winnings.
And that's where I think it really gets dangerous though.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
So let's talk about ADHD first. Could you define what I think, you know, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, I think is what it stands for, but how would you define this doctor and how does someone go about figuring out if they have this disorder?
Stephen Wu, PhD., Hamilton College
Yeah, that's a good question. I don't know if I'm the most qualified to answer that question, but certainly, you know, there are mental health professionals that will diagnose this where people are often multitasking, doing lots of different things, but sometimes hard, you know, having difficulty to focus on one specific activity, whether that's work, whether that's schoolwork, whether that's even just daily tasks or something like that.
Could sports gambling enable that perhaps exacerbate some of those issues? Certainly so. But again, I would say far from a professional medical professional to sort of kind of get into too much detail about that.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah, my apologies. I know you're an economist by trade, maybe not a mental health professional, but how does this, what makes it, let's just talk maybe superficially then, why would people, young men in particular, who may have been diagnosed with ADHD, why would they be more susceptive to this type of behavior? What is it about them that maybe their parents, their loved ones, and then maybe we'll talk about government in a few minutes, but why are they more susceptible?
Stephen Wu, PhD., Hamilton College
It could be that those that have ADHD, harder to focus on one thing, there can be lots of stimulation that's necessary, right? So again, when you have not only that you're following the outcome of the game, there could be multiple things on the line, you could be betting on several different aspects of the game. And perhaps that's something that, you know, for those who might not struggle with ADHD, it's almost hard to actually be able to sort of keep track of so many different things, because we're more used to focusing on one particular aspect, whereas somebody who's more used to multitasking, doing lots of different things simultaneously, maybe that's something that's, you know, that's more conducive to those types of individuals.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
So if these individuals may have a, be more susceptible to addiction and more gambling than others, is there, how do you balance personal responsibility versus the responsibility of family members? I think I interviewed, you may know Dr. Michelle Malkin from, I mean, I know there's a lot of people in your profession, but she's a professional who deals a lot with gambling here in North Carolina. You know, clearly, more and more people are taking advantage of this, they make or may not call into helplines to assist them.
But is there a role for the individual to protect him or herself, in this case himself, and their family members?
Stephen Wu, PhD., Hamilton College
I think that's a really great question. It's a difficult one. I think for some individuals, if they might have the foresight to know that that could be a difficulty for them or an issue, then they might be able to do that.
I think the difficulty, anything involving addictions, whether that's gambling or it's other things, other substances, is that often those that might be engaged in those activities are not aware of the extent of the problem. And I think that's the difficulty. If you're not aware of the extent of the problem, then even asking a family member or a friend or even having sort of foresight to put some self-controls on yourself, that's going to be difficult.
So I think that's the difference is that even for those that might struggle with addiction or addictive behaviors, do those individuals have some knowledge about that or at least some awareness of that? I think that's a big question.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Is there a role, Dr., you know, the gambling companies, the sports betting companies will all say, well, we put disclosures, disclaimers. It's probably highly regulated, like my industry, the retirement industry. But is that enough to put a disclaimer?
Because I'll be honest, I mean, there have been disclaimers and warnings on cigarette labels for boxes for before I was even born, yet people still smoke. So, you know, is there some responsibility of the companies to maybe do a little bit more?
Stephen Wu, PhD., Hamilton College
Yeah. Again, another good question. I think a lot of times, you know, even for those of us that don't struggle with sort of, you know, over usage of these types of things, even in modest amount, I think a lot of times we often we just, you know, run right through those warnings.
We don't even really read a lot of those things. And I think so sometimes, you know, how much is that actually doing? This is just covering our bases.
Is it actually sort of protecting those individuals that might struggle with that through that? So I think that just warnings alone are probably not sufficient. It's not really going to deter somebody who's engaged in the behavior, you know, very, you know, very heavily.
So might there be some other ways in terms of having some safeguards of, you know, limits per day, limits per week, you know, so something like that, that automatically kicks in regardless of just having the warnings on that. So I think there certainly is a combination. Of course, we always think about other responsibilities for individuals themselves.
But again, when dealing with addictive behavior, that's going to be really difficult because, you know, those that may succumb to addiction or addictive behaviors often don't have those self-control mechanisms or those are things that are really difficult to overcome.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Let me ask you about the remaining states, I think, as I said, I can't keep track of the I don't watch the state legislatures, but I think somewhere between 38 and 40 states currently have it legalized. Others are certainly considering it. You know, they see the tax revenue aspect of it.
I certainly understand that. But is there a role here? You know, I think we want to be limited in terms of government's intervention.
But my personal opinion, but I want to get your reaction, you know, for those states that maybe are considering this, those legislatures, what should they learn from this study, this type of research?
Stephen Wu, PhD., Hamilton College
Well, I think when there's been a lot of research lately that has been coming out that looking at some of the potential dangers of legalized sports gambling in terms of, you know, poor mental health, financial, financial difficulties, there's even things that have looked at sort of intimate partner domestic violence issues. Or we have a recent research that's looked at that it could actually decrease the amount of fiscal activity for young people because it's substituting their time away from going out and taking a walk or exercising and instead being in front of TV, following the sports, following certain events a little bit more heavily. So how might these other states think about that?
They want to be careful, I think, in terms of sort of what the allowances are. I think the difficulty would certainly be in how much the states can regulate what these, you know, these gambling sites do, right, in terms of can they require them to have certain safeguards? Can they require them to have, say, like certain limits in terms of amounts of betting and things like that?
And those are some details, I think, that are some of the legal issues, which, again, I'm not as familiar with what would be allowable, what would even be able to pass. But I think there certainly are things that need to be considered as these legislators are contemplating those things.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
And lastly, you know, as I mentioned, we are the Broadcast Retirement Network. We talk about all things related to retirement saving, planning, independence. This, I think, for the audience, this has a major impact on achieving your financial goals.
If you let things get out of hand, higher debt, I mean, it can balloon. It can really take an impact on your savings, which at a young age, like some of these young men are who may have ADHD, that power of compounding doesn't get a chance to work for you. That's right.
Stephen Wu, PhD., Hamilton College
No, certainly, as we know, the power of compounding is certainly important, right? So sometimes we think when we're young, not so important or not as important to worry about retirement savings as later. But in some ways, you know, you could think about it, you know, that that's as or even more important because dollars now socked away certainly can accumulate.
And again, the power of that compounding is very big. So I think those are things that we really need to consider in terms of, you know, are these modest amounts that is this a little bit of entertainment? It's one thing, as opposed to once it gets to become significant and really sort of cutting into what would be retirement savings.
That's really that's a potentially a really big concern.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
So before we close out, I want to, you know, ask you about some future research, things that maybe you're thinking about covering in additional research that you're going to you in particular will be doing any any thoughts about where to take things in terms of the impact to people, to society and also to to government, I guess, citizens.
Stephen Wu, PhD., Hamilton College
So I would say that so because of the legalizations, the recent ones are, you know, have only happened in just the last few years or at least, you know, handful of years. A lot of the research has looked at more of these short term impacts. So I think in, you know, in the coming years, as there have been more and more years post legalization, I think there'll be even more to do to think about.
So it's one thing to say about short term mental health impacts. What does that do in terms of longer term impacts? And I think that would be something that would be really enlightening, potentially scary, because we think about, oh, it's already having effects in the short term.
What might those longer term effects be? Especially if it affects things like physical activity, time usage. Right.
So how we're allocating our time, how that makes our sort of general life habits different. And that could have longer term impacts. So those are some of the things that I would consider, especially in the future.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yep. More data over time gives you more of a longer, broader view. Dr. Wu, we're going to have to leave it there. Great to see you as always. Great research. And we look forward to having you back again very soon, sir.
Stephen Wu, PhD., Hamilton College
Thanks so much.
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This story was originally published June 25, 2026 at 7:30 AM.