Sports betting regulation and young men, with Losing Big author Jonathan Cohen

Sports betting spread across the US faster than lotteries ever did, and Jonathan Cohen says the safeguards have not kept up. Cohen is policy lead at the American Institute for Boys and Men and author of Losing Big. He talks to InGame senior analyst Jeff Edelstein on the Business of Betting Podcast.

In this episode

• Cohen says sports betting should stay legal, since a regulated market beats an illegal one, but that it was rolled out "recklessly" with insufficient guardrails for under-21s, perhaps under-25s (8:18, 8:31, 8:52).

• He points to the speed: Delaware was live within six weeks of the Murphy decision, and states reached 40 with sports betting in about seven years, against 40 years for lotteries (9:41, 11:08).

• His fix is friction: wait 24 hours before raising a limit again, and perhaps five minutes between microbets (23:40, 23:47).

• Prediction markets are "worse", he says; by his institute's poll, 41% of users say making money is their primary reason for using them (19:39, 19:41).

• Young people will find gambling anyway, so he favours teaching how it works; he notes young men who track bets in a spreadsheet and gain false confidence (16:29, 17:05).

• He says prediction markets may be gone in five years, while sports betting could end up more firmly in the crosshairs (30:23, 30:32).

Episode from the Business of Betting Podcast with Jeff Edelstein, published on YouTube.