<\/p>\n
Legalized sports betting is sweeping states across the country, reshaping the relationship between fans, athletes and their favorite pastime in the process.<\/p>\n
In 2025, Americans bet a record $165 billion on sports. <\/p>\n
And over the past 18 months, federal authorities have indicted two Major League Baseball pitchers, a former NBA player and coach, and a Division I college basketball player in separate schemes to manipulate game results. <\/p>\n
In the wake of these scandals, a U.S. Senate subcommittee has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday to examine the impact that the growth of the gambling industry has had on the integrity of professional sports.<\/p>\n
Among those scheduled to testify in the Russell Senate Office Building are industry figures, including the president of the American Gaming Association, senior adviser to the Prediction Markets Coalition and executive director of the Sports Wagering Council. <\/p>\n
Senators will also hear from Harry Levant, a former Philadelphia lawyer known as a sharp critic of the close relationship between sports leagues and gambling companies.<\/p>\n
“The American people need to understand how the league monetizes their data and monetizes their relationships with gambling companies,” Levant said in a recent interview. “And they’re doing it on the backs of increasingly younger Americans.” <\/p>\n
Mr. Levant, 62, is director of gambling policy at the Boston-based Institute for Public Health Advocacy. The nonprofit filed a lawsuit in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court earlier this year accusing FanDuel Sportsbook and DraftKings of using services designed to be addictive by allowing customers to place countless microbets during games. <\/p>\n
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), chair of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Technology, and Data Privacy, convened Wednesday’s hearing.<\/p>\n
“As traditional online betting platforms and new entrants such as prediction markets continue to intersect with sport, we need a clear understanding of how these platforms operate and what this means for the integrity of the game,” Blackburn said last month. <\/p>\n
The National Council on Problem Gambling found in 2025 that approximately 20 million Americans reported experiencing “problem gambling behavior” multiple times during the previous year.<\/p>\n
It is a form of suffering that the Levant understands well. <\/p>\n
Born in East Oak Lane, Levant attended Temple University School of Law and became a defense and personal injury attorney. He raised three children in the city’s Andhra district. <\/p>\n
Those superficial successes were gradually overshadowed by a growing gambling addiction, which Levant traced into adolescence. He made his first bet with a bookmaker when he was 15 years old. <\/p>\n
To fund his habit as an adult, Levant began stealing money from customers. <\/p>\n
By 2014, he had embezzled nearly $2 million. <\/p>\n
Levant voluntarily reported his crimes to the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office that year. He was charged with third-degree felonies of theft and forgery. He also surrendered his law license. <\/p>\n
A year later, a common court judge sentenced Levant to 11 1\/2 to 23 months in prison, but released him on parole on the condition that he attend addiction counseling and pay restitution to his victims. <\/p>\n
“The judge told me, ‘This doesn’t have to be the end. We can do something with this,'” Levant recalled. <\/p>\n
In 2018, she embarked on a new path and enrolled at La Salle University, where she later earned a master’s degree in professional counseling.<\/p>\n
That same year, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which limited the legalization of sports betting to Nevada, Oregon, Montana, and Delaware. <\/p>\n
Thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia have adopted sports betting laws, and professional sports leagues, once concerned about links to gambling, have formed partnerships with sportsbook companies such as DraftKings and FanDuel. <\/p>\n
In 2021, DraftKings introduced a new form of gambling to its platform called MicroBet, which allows customers to bet on every play of a game. <\/p>\n
Levant was treating patients with gambling addictions and felt that more needed to be done to address the urgency of what he believed was a national epidemic.<\/p>\n
“My promise at the sentencing hearing was that if I was able to recover, I would do everything in my power to prevent other people from suffering further,” he said.<\/p>\n
Levant joined Northeastern University in 2022 to pursue a doctorate in law and public policy. <\/p>\n
Two years later, he started working at PHAI.<\/p>\n
Levant said he is not necessarily opposed to legalized gambling. However, he argues that gambling companies employ strategies that amplify addiction, such as sending customers push notifications and promotional offers based on their gambling history data.<\/p>\n
He is similarly troubled by prediction markets Karshi and Polymarket, which are not regulated or taxed like traditional gambling companies and are available to consumers as young as 18. <\/p>\n
(An Army soldier was arrested earlier this year and accused of using classified information about a U.S. military plan to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to obtain more than $400,000 from Polymarket.) <\/p>\n
The American Gaming Association, the national trade group representing the casino industry, reported that a survey conducted in 2025 found that 57% of U.S. adults had participated in some form of gambling in the previous year, and 21% had placed a bet on sports. <\/p>\n
According to the association’s survey, 84% of sports bettors said they believed the industry was working to combat problem gambling.<\/p>\n
In Pennsylvania, calls to the 1-800-GAMBLER helpline jumped from 330 in 2021 to 1,171 in 2024. Meanwhile, from January to September 2025, companies spent $37 million on online gambling advertising in the Philadelphia area, more than any other media market. <\/p>\n
Levant said she receives about a dozen emails a week from people seeking help for addiction for themselves or a loved one. <\/p>\n
“Do you know what they all have in common?” he asked. “pain.” <\/p>\n
The Senate subcommittee hearing is part of a larger legislative effort to address growing concerns about gambling addiction, which Levant describes as a cascading “mental health crisis” across the country. <\/p>\n
Earlier this month, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.), and four other members of Congress sent letters to the CEOs of 10 companies, including FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, Kalshi, and Polymarket. <\/p>\n
Lawmakers peppered executives with questions, including whether the company had been fined for minors accessing its products and how much revenue it received from gamblers who showed signs of problem gambling. <\/p>\n
The elected officials asked for answers and a staff-level briefing by May 29. <\/p>\n
Blumenthal and Tonko previously introduced the Supporting Fair Price and Fairness in All Betting Act, which would ban sportsbook advertising during live events and prohibit companies from accepting more than five cash deposits from customers in a 24-hour period. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no question in my mind that we are seeing an intensification of a burgeoning movement,\u201d Levant said. \u201cI think the days when gambling companies, prediction markets and leagues could act with impunity to make money are over.\u201d [addiction] And call it earnings coming to an end. \u201d<\/p>\n
understand\n <\/p><\/div>\n
The Inquirer’s journalism is supported in part by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism and readers like you. News and editorial content is produced independently of Inquirer donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com\/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org\/supporters.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
#Senate #investigate #sports #bettings #mental #health #crisis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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