CUYAHOGA COUNTY, Ohio (WOIO) – It’s been more than a year since the state of Ohio legalized sports betting. Nearly 8 billion dollars was wagered on sports across Ohio last year, but the industry’s success is not a good thing for everyone.

19 Investigates spoke with a Solon man who nearly lost everything to sports betting.

“Sports betting became legal in January of 2023 and that’s when everything changed,” the 28-year-old man said. “I downloaded every single sportsbook app that you could. I did all the free plays.”

The east side man wants to remain anonymous.

“The only thing I was thinking about was placing my next bet,” he admitted.

He wanted to share his story for the first time to help others who might be struggling because he’s seen firsthand just how low a sports betting addiction can take you.

“I didn’t care who was playing,” he said. “I didn’t care what was on. If there was something that I could lose money on, I would do it. I’d never watched Brazilian women’s soccer in my life, but I gambled on it.”

He said his addiction quickly spiraled out of control.

“Those three months that it was legal, I maxed out all of my credit cards,” the Solon man said. “I stole from my mom once, paid her back, only to steal it again.”

In a matter of three months, the 28-year-old man gambled away his yearly salary.

“It was anywhere from 30 to $50,000 and this is actually the first time I’ve ever said that amount out loud, and it’s disgusting,” the man said.

In March 2023 he hit rock bottom. He had just stolen thousands of dollars from his mom a second time.

“It was the worst feeling ever taking my girlfriend out on a vacation with the money that I stole from my mom. I don’t know what got into me, after living 28 years of lies, you start to believe the lies. God works in mysterious ways for whatever reason, I decided to get out of bed that morning and said, Mom, I need help. I have a serious gambling problem.”

The Solon man is not alone. Calls to the Ohio Problem Gambling Helpline went from around 7,000 in 2022 to more than 9,600 in 2023.

In the first month sports betting was legalized calls tripled.

Nabil Pervaiz is the Manager of Prevention Services at Recovery Resources. He believes the increase is directly related to the legalization of sports betting in Ohio.

“Yes, it is most definitely directly related to that,” Pervaiz said. “For all of us in the field, we really weren’t surprised when that happened. We kind of expected it mainly because other states who, when they first legalized sports betting in their states, we saw an increase there.”

You used to have to come into the casino to get your gambling fix but now all that has changed. All you need is your cell phone and with a few taps you can gamble away thousands of dollars and thanks to these apps Gambler’s Anonymous is seeing a much younger demographic coming through their doors, a huge wave of men in their 20s and 30s.

Ed also wanted to hide his identity, but he represents Gamblers Anonymous and overcame a gambling addiction himself.

“It’s hitting the young male population because it’s part of their psyche,” Ed explained. “You know, sports gambling has been around for decades and centuries probably, but the availability is much more. What is really scary is that it provides a person instant gratification. They’re sitting down with their friends they just lay out the pizza and they’re gonna put some skin on the game. Okay, and that’s for those who can legally but unfortunately, there are spoof sites out there that look on the surface exactly like the regulated gambling sites that we have that groom kids. The youngest person we currently have in GA right now is 11.”

So, problem gambling is on the rise but how can people struggling with addiction get help?

“You can continue to live in the shadows and live in the lies and live in your fairy tale world,” the Solon man said. “But every fairy-tale world does come crashing down eventually.”

Pervaiz says the first step in recovery is admitting you have a problem.

“There’s a lot of stigma around gambling if folks don’t want to talk about it, right, it’s difficult to help somebody, right if we don’t know what’s going on,” Pervaiz explained. “Whether it’s your brother, sister, mom, dad, whoever it might be if you suspect that there might be a problem there with their gambling, have that conversation and if you don’t feel comfortable having that conversation, give us a call at recovery resources.”

Ed with Gamblers Anonymous was on the professional poker circuit before he realized his addiction was ruining his life.

“I was talking to a tier one player, that six World Series of Poker bracelets, and I was unloading on him how my wife doesn’t understand me and my goals and all this other stuff and he looked at me he says, ‘Are you really sure you want what I have right now? Do you really want to make sure that you lose your wife, lose your kids, play 18 hours a day in front of a table, drive around in a Bentley one week, and on the city bus the next, is that your real goal just in exchange for a few bracelets?’ that woke me up. As soon as I got back from Vegas, I went to my first GA meeting.”

The number of people in Ohio with a gambling disorder tripled between 2017 and 2022 and with the legalization of sports betting that trend is expected to grow.

“We’re seeing a lot of younger people who are reaching out looking for help,” Pervaiz said. “I’ve been placing these bets, you know, on my fantasy league, and on all this on all these different sports that are happening, and sports games that are happening, and they’re reaching out, saying, you know, I lost so much money, help me so that I can just get back out there, right. It’s, it’s a little bit more aggressive.”

In 2012 Ohio launched the Voluntary Exclusion Program or Timeout Ohio.

“We’ve even been seeing an increase there, you know, participation in that in Cuyahoga County specifically,” Pervaiz said.

More people have signed up for the program since sports betting was legalized too. From January 2022 to January 2023 464 more people joined the Voluntary Exclusion Program. There are also hundreds of people who live outside the state who have opted in and most of them are from states bordering Ohio.

“We have had people in our program, they have been arrested at the local casinos because they went in, they needed to gamble, they hit the slot machines or whatever hit a jackpot, only to discover because they were on a self-exclusion list they voided winning the jackpot and were greeted with a trespassing arrest,” Ed explained. “So, the consequences are real for banning yourself, but it doesn’t stop you if you’re bound and determined. So, with your cooperation, that’s a great, great tool.”

For the 28-year-old Solon man, it was Gambler’s Anonymous and the support of his family that changed his life. He now has 457 days in recovery.

“Words can’t even describe,” he said. “It’s the first year ever I bought both my sister’s birthday presents, and I have money in my bank account. I felt like I lost 150 pounds. I felt like I could breathe again.”

Our TVs and devices are flooded with ads for sports betting. The 28-year-old man would like to see more commercials with resources for people who need help.

“The people that need help or abuse some of these things need to know about the resources,” he said. “I had absolutely no idea how big Gamblers Anonymous was in Ohio until I’m now in the program.”

When it comes to Time Out Ohio you can either ban yourself for one year, 5 years, or a lifetime if you change your mind on the lifetime ban. A clinician must sign off on it.

To get help at Recovery Resources you can go to their website recres.org or call 216-431-4131 or visit gamblersanonymous.org for a list of meetings in your area.

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