America is losing big on sports betting

The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Vox Media Podcast Network

Society & Culture, News, Politics, News Commentary, Philosophy

4.6 • 10.8K Ratings

🗓️ 11 August 2025

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Almost every tech platform is designed to grab and hold your attention, to keep you clicking, scrolling, and buying for as long as possible. Sports gambling has become one of the clearest examples of this. The industry has created frictionless apps on your phone that let you bet on everything from March Madness to a pregame coin toss to who wins a minor league British dart tournament. While betting has become easier — and arguably fun — the cost of these apps is much higher than the money that is won and lost on them. Today’s guest is Jonathan D. Cohen, author of Losing Big: America's Reckless Bet on Sports Gambling. He and Sean discuss the rise of sports betting, why the industry targets young men in their advertising, the social costs of frictionless sports gambling, and how the industry could be improved. Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling) Guest: Jonathan D. Cohen, writer and author of Losing Big: America's Reckless Bet on Sports Gambling We would love to hear from you. To tell us what we thought of this episode, email us at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 1-800-214-5749. Your comments and questions help us make a better show. And you can watch new episodes of ⁠The Gray Area on YouTube⁠. Listen to The Gray Area ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: ⁠vox.com/members⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for this show comes from Robin Hood.
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0:35.1	including loss of principle. Sec securities trading is offered through an account
0:38.1	with robin hood financial LLC member cipic a registered broker dealer support for this show comes
0:47.1	from service now a company that helps people do more fulfilling work the work they actually want to do
0:52.9	you know what people don't want to do?
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1:19.0	started at servicenow.com slash AI dash agents. Almost every tech platform in your life is designed to grab your attention and then never let it go.
1:36.6	You give it clicks and it gives you dopamine.
	...

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