At its core, CGHA is interested in how societies manage risk, appetite, addiction, dependency, and human behavior. Why are some potentially harmful activities heavily regulated while others are tolerated, encouraged, or even promoted? Sports betting is one of the most interesting examples.
Over the past four years I have been researching the rapid expansion of sports gambling, work that culminates in my forthcoming book The House Always Wins, due for publication in August. More recently, as part of CGHA’s broader effort to understand the regulation of appetite and addiction, we published a paper examining what appears to drive engagement among high-frequency online bettors.
The paper sits somewhat outside traditional public-health research, but in many ways it addresses exactly the same questions. Why do people engage in potentially risky behaviors? What role do commercial incentives play? How should governments respond? And perhaps most importantly, are we regulating the right things?
What exactly are modern sportsbooks selling?
At first glance, the answer seems obvious. They sell bets. They offer odds on sporting events and make money when bettors lose more than they win. Yet after several years studying the industry, interviewing bettors, examining betting behavior, and analyzing a sample of high-frequency sportsbook users, I have become convinced that this answer is incomplete.
The most interesting finding in the paper was not that many bettors lose money. Everyone already knows that. Nor was it that some bettors chase losses. That is hardly a revelation. The more surprising finding was that many bettors described successful wagers not primarily as exciting but as relieving.
The emotional reward came not from getting ahead but from reducing the discomfort associated with being behind.
That distinction may sound trivial. It is not. If gambling is primarily about excitement, then sportsbooks are selling entertainment. If gambling increasingly functions as a mechanism for reducing anxiety, boredom, loneliness, or the discomfort associated with previous losses, then sportsbooks are selling something very different.
The Relief–Engagement Model
THE MODEL Contemporary sportsbooks increasingly resemble social media platforms, mobile games, streaming services, and other digital engagement systems. Their objective is not merely to facilitate wagers. It is to maximize engagement, immersion, retention, and emotional attachment.Traditional gambling involved significant friction. A bettor might visit a bookmaker, a racetrack, or a casino. There were limits imposed by geography, opening hours, social visibility, and inconvenience. Online sportsbooks have largely eliminated those constraints. Gambling is now available continuously, often through the same device used for work, communication, entertainment, and social interaction.
At the same time, sportsbooks have adopted many of the engagement techniques that characterize the broader app economy. Same-game parlays, personalized promotions, loyalty systems, betting targets, and VIP programs all encourage users to return repeatedly to the platform. The wager increasingly becomes part of a larger engagement ecosystem.
Friction, promotions, and questionnaires
Interestingly, this does not mean that the industry is becoming more aggressive in every respect. One of the more striking observations from interviews with bettors was that several major operators appear to have introduced more friction than existed during the industry’s early expansion phase.
Promotions remain common, particularly around same-game parlays and major sporting events, but many experienced bettors report that offers are less generous than they were a few years ago. At the same time, several described receiving responsible-gambling questionnaires after periods of heavy losses or apparent loss-chasing. The questions are surprisingly direct:
- Are you experiencing financial difficulties because of gambling?
- Have you hidden gambling from family members?
- Have you lost sleep because of betting?
- Has gambling affected your relationships?
The existence of these questionnaires complicates the caricature of sportsbooks as firms interested only in maximizing wagering volume regardless of consequences. The industry increasingly appears to be moving in two directions simultaneously.
Where the pressure actually comes from
The strongest pressure to continue gambling often appears to come not from the sportsbook but from the bettor. This was perhaps the most unexpected conclusion of the research.
Much public debate assumes that gambling companies constantly pressure customers into betting more. Certainly promotions, VIP programs, and targeted offers play a role. But among high-frequency users the most powerful forces often seem to become internalized. The desire to recover losses, erase a bad week, complete a target, maintain status, or simply remove the discomfort associated with being down frequently becomes more important than any external inducement.
By the time a bettor receives a responsible-gambling questionnaire, the critical behavioral dynamics may already be operating inside the bettor rather than outside them.
Loneliness and emotional occupation
The relationship is preliminary and requires further study, but loneliness was associated with betting intensity in our sample. That should not be surprising. Sports betting provides anticipation, structure, routine, stakes, and immersion. It transforms ordinary sporting events into emotionally significant experiences. A random Tuesday baseball game suddenly matters. A routine NBA matchup acquires urgency and meaning.
In this sense, sportsbooks do more than facilitate wagers. They create emotional occupation.
Unlike cigarettes, gambling is heavily promoted by sports leagues, broadcasters, and governments. States collect tax revenue. Sports leagues collect sponsorship income. Media companies benefit from increased engagement. Sportsbooks acquire customers. Everyone benefits from participation. No conspiracy is required. The incentives are obvious.
None of this means sports betting should be prohibited. Millions of people gamble recreationally without significant problems. Adults can reasonably choose to spend money on activities that involve risk. The issue is not whether betting exists. The issue is whether we understand the product being sold.
THE ARGUMENT IN ONE LINE They sell engagement. They sell immersion. They sell routine. They sell progression. And for many users, they sell intermittent relief from boredom, loneliness, anxiety, and the frustrations of everyday life. That may prove to be a far more important insight than anything we learn about the odds.
