Tag: gambling addiction

Dave Ramsey Says Spouses of Gambling Addicts Need Ultimatum
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Posted on: October 13, 2025, 01:35h.

Last updated on: October 13, 2025, 01:46h.
- Dave Ramsey says gambling addicts need ultimatums from their loved ones
- Sports betting is a major concern in the money world, Ramsey says
Dave Ramsey, the star of his namesake nationally syndicated finance radio show, recently heard from a 69-year-old caller who says her husband gambled nearly all of their retirement away on sports.

Dave Ramsey has some tough love for spouses of gambling addicts. He says they must give the addict an ultimatum about their betting problem. (Image: Ramsey Solutions)

Telling her story under obvious emotional distress, the woman detailed that her 79-year-old husband has lost almost all of their $1 million retirement portfolio betting on sports.

Saying she only recently became aware that their savings were down to $15K, the woman told Ramsey she began looking into their finances after she found a late notice on their taxes in the mail.

Ramsey has been hosting “The Ramsey Show” for more than three decades. Among the most listened to radio shows in the US, the daily program airs from 2 pm to 5 pm EST on terrestrial radio and podcast outlets, as well as on iHeartRadio and SiriusXM.

Addicts Need Ultimatums

The woman’s husband, who told her he can stop betting at any time and pledged to “get it under control,” needs clear parameters, Ramsey said.

Call a marriage counselor and someone who does addiction counseling,” Ramsey advised. “Both can give you a framework by which you lead them into an ultimatum, and the ultimatum is: you stop cold turkey, you are going to Gamblers’ Anonymous, and you are going to a therapist.”

Ramsey said that she needs to tell her husband that if he gambles another dime, “You will not see me anymore.”

Ramsey has long warned listeners about sports betting.

Sports betting is probably the fastest growing addictive problem that we’re running into in the money world,” Ramsey said during a February show. “It’s out of control, sports betting. You can bet on anything, and they [addicts] are betting on everything. Some of you are losing your entire futures betting on someone else earning a living.”

An April report on Ramsey’s website — Ramsey Solutions — said one’s “odds of getting rich off sports betting apps are low.”

“It takes a huge bankroll to actually make money long term. You’d have to bet hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to see any kind of real money from it,” wrote Ramsey Solutions finance expert George Kamel.

“Don’t use betting on the big game as an investment plan — no matter how much Big Rick with the cheese on his head at the Packers game says you should. Smart investors who want to build wealth the right way don’t gamble on sports betting. They keep their investments diverse in the market and have a long-term mindset,” Kamel continued.

Problem Gambling Rate Softens

In July, the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) released a national survey suggesting that the spike in risky gambling behavior observed during and after the COVID-19 pandemic has somewhat subsided.

The National Survey on Gambling Attitudes and Gambling Experiences found that nearly 20 million American adults reported at least one problematic gambling behavior “many times” in the past year. That’s down from 27.5 million in 2021, though that level remains elevated compared with 2018.

“This new research shows that the nationwide efforts in responsible gambling and public awareness are making a positive impact, but the work is far from over,” said Derek Longmeier, NCPG president. “We must build on this momentum by embedding problem gambling into the broader public health infrastructure and investing in what we know works: collaboration across prevention, education, treatment, and research with the support of the government and communities.”
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Devin O’Connor

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October 13, 2025
Is legalized sports betting making sports and society worse? What new poll shows
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Americans’ views of legalized sports betting has shifted in the last three years, a poll found.

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Once upon a time, bettors had to get creative when the sports calendar went quiet. Office pools, backyard games, maybe even who could down a hot dog the fastest — anything was fair game when the action slowed.

Now, with sports betting legal across much of the country, there’s no shortage of wagers to place.

But the boom is starting to raise more eyebrows than excitement.

In a new poll conducted by Pew Research Center, Americans’ view of legalized sports betting has shifted slightly in the past three years, with pollers leaning more toward the idea that it’s bad for both society and sports.

“Today, 43% of U.S. adults say the fact that sports betting is now legal in much of the country is a bad thing for society. That’s up from 34% in 2022. And 40% of adults now say it’s a bad thing for sports, up from 33%,” the Pew Research Center said.

Pew’s survey was conducted from July 8 to Aug. 3 and polled 9,916 adults. It has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 1.3 percentage points.

Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association

Earlier this year, JAMA Internal Medicine found there is a growing health concern regarding gambling addiction following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision (Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association) to allow legalized sports betting outside of Nevada in 2017 — which could possibly serve as a connection to society’s growing awareness of the perceived unhealthy aspects surrounding sports betting.

Operational sportsbooks went from just one state in 2018 to 38 in 2024. Wagers increased from “$4.9 billion in 2017 to $121.1 billion in 2023,” JAMA said.

That being said, 22% of adults say they’ve personally bet money on sports during 2025, growing slightly from 19% in 2022, studies find.

Young Americans and sports gambling

In February, the American Institute for Boys and Men published a research paper about the financial impact of sports betting on young men and how it’s leading to more harm than good.

Of men under 45, negative impacts across the board in states that allowed legalized sports betting in 2018, according to research, include:
- Credit scores down by 0.3%
- Bankruptcy rates up 25-30%
- Debt collection increase by 8%
- Debt consolidation loans up by 10%
- Auto loan delinquencies increase by 9%
- Secured to unsecured credit usage increase by 4%
- Credit card limit reduce by 3%
In the newest study, 47% of men under 30 say legalized sports betting is bad for society, a leap from 22% in 2022. Young women have also viewed it as negative, jumping from 25% in 2022 to 35%, Pew Research said.

Is sports betting harming games themselves?

Bad news for Tennessee Titans had coach Brian Callahan if he’s betting that he’ll have an NFL coaching job come Week 6.

Good news if you’re an NBA referee time traveling from 2002.

“The role that sports leagues have played in integrating with sports betting is an indictment unto itself. But there is a darker undercurrent that suggests sports themselves may end up regretting their union with their onetime scourge,” the National Review said in August.

When some people say the quiet part out loud, teams will start questioning the authenticity of an athlete’s game, according to the publication.

“On the professional level, coaches and athletes alike can now invite suspicion about whether they are altering their performances for the sake of some wager, either for themselves or for some predesignated beneficiary,” the national review noted.

“This concern is sometimes vindicated.”

This includes cases like Jontay Porter, a former NBA player who officials say bet on his own games during his time with the Toronto Raptors, and Tucupita Marcano, a former San Diego Padres infielder who the MLB said placed bets on his previous team, the Pittsburgh Pirates.

This doesn’t include players like Pete Rose, who was permanently banned from baseball in 1989 for sports gambling.

It also can mess with the emotional and mental health of professional and college athletes when they receive threatening messages from fans who have placed bets on their performances.

TJ Macias

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

TJ Macías is a Real-Time national sports reporter for McClatchy based out of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. Formerly, TJ covered the Dallas Mavericks and Texas Rangers beat for numerous media outlets including 24/7 Sports and Mavs Maven (Sports Illustrated). Twitter: @TayloredSiren
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TJ Macias

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October 3, 2025
Vegas Comic Hit Up Audiences to Fund His Gambling Addiction for 20 Years – Casino.org
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Posted on: September 16, 2025, 01:41h.

Last updated on: September 16, 2025, 03:08h.
- Vinnie Favorito was once touted in Las Vegas as the next Don Rickles
- In addition to being a hard-working comic, Favorito was also a hardcore gambler known for hitting up his audience members for money
- A new documentary shines a spotlight on Favorito’s career and gambling addiction
In the days of the Rat Pack, if a cocktail server needed financial help for a family emergency, Frank Sinatra would gladly tip her a hundy. In the early 2000s, it was the reverse — at least for some who attended the thousands of Las Vegas Strip performances by comic Vinnie Favorito.

Vinnie Favorito poses in 2006, when he was at the top of his career game and the bottom of his craps one. (Image: Getty)

The former Strip headliner would ask pretty much anyone he perceived as having money to loan him some of it.

“Vinnie Plays Vegas: The Con Man of Comedy,” now streaming on Amazon Prime and Apple TV, is a documentary exploring the rise and downfall of an entertainer who preyed on gullible audience members to fund his gambling addiction.

“I wanted to pay everybody back,” Favorito came clean to director Brian Burkhardt, his friend and fellow comedian, in the film, “but you get deeper and deeper and deeper like a drug, and you’re lying. You’re lying all the time.”

The promotional art for a new Amazon Prime documentary about Favorito. (Image: Amazon Prime)

An insult comic once touted as the next Don Rickles, Favorito has always leaned heavily into crowd work. That’s when you ask audience members where they’re from and what they do for a living before crafting appropriate zingers.

But unlike Rickles, Favorito was fishing for marks as well as comedy material.

After his shows, he approached the audience members who identified themselves as having six-figure jobs and hit them up. They were usually good for $1,000 to $15K each.

“It’s kind of [the] same skill,” said Mike Weatherford, a co-writer of the film, who documented Favorito’s exploits during his time as the entertainment reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “The guy who was a doctor was the one he’d made sure to shake hands with after the show and, say, ‘Hey, why don’t we play golf?’”

Favorito performed this act (and con) at venues including Binion’s, O’Shea’s, the Flamingo, and the Westgate for nearly 20 years.

Even after the Flamingo fired him for borrowing from one of their waitresses, he continued. Some of the victims who spoke in the documentary recalled giving him money on multiple occasions.

“I’m not trying to make an excuse,” Favorito added. “But when you’re trying to chase the money and make that easy shortcut, everything goes south, and you don’t realize how deep you get. Now I’m so behind with people, and you’re trying to keep track of your own story … I’ve got to play the carnival game that you can hit a jackpot hand on. But the dream never came.”

Comic Relief

In September 2016, Favorito declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy to give himself a fresh start. More than 60 creditors jockeyed for pennies on the more than a million dollars he officially owed. There’s no telling how much more he owed to friends, co-workers, and fans unofficially.

How many people out there have a credit card that they couldn’t pay, years ago or now?” Favorito asked. “It’s kind of the same thing. You’re borrowing money, you know you don’t have the money to pay it, and later on, you’re going to end up trying to get out of the card.”

Weatherford told Casino.org that he doesn’t feel that merely coming clean about his addiction will be adequate to restore Favorito’s reputation — “unless he’s doing an apology tour and raising money for Gamblers Anonymous.”

And Favorito doesn’t seem to disagree.

“I’m the biggest piece of shit in the world for what I did,” he told Burkhardt. “I’ll always be looked at as the gambler. Don’t lend Vinnie money. You can’t escape that.”

Favorito still performs in Vegas. His show is at the 170-seat Robin Leach Lounge at the Notoriety Live theater downtown.
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Corey Levitan

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September 16, 2025
Bank Manager Who Skimmed ATMs to Gamble Avoids Prison
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Posted on: August 31, 2025, 02:47h.

Last updated on: August 31, 2025, 02:47h.
- NatWest banker stole £344K over eight years undetected
- Judge cites gambling addiction, illness in suspended sentence ruling
- Case highlights urgency of UK gambling law reforms
A former branch manager of the UK’s NatWest bank escaped prison time last week after admitting to skimming £344,410 (US$465K) from his own ATMs over an extraordinary eight-year stretch.

Former NatWest branch manager John Toms was spared prison after admitting to an eight-year £344,410 ATM fraud. (Image: NatWest)

John Toms received a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years, after admitting to swiping the cash from the Moorgate branch in the City of London, the UK’s financial district, where he was the senior manager. He told the court his actions were fueled by a crippling gambling addiction.

Fingers in ATMs

Between January 2016 and April 2024, Toms leveraged his exclusive access to ATMs to siphon cash undetected, prosecutors said.

He would withdraw cash from the machines late in the day. Then he would slip into the branch before opening hours to shuffle money between ATM registers and back‑office funds, according to prosecutors. He even forged coworkers’ signatures to mask the anomaly in the branch’s daily and quarterly reconciliations, per court documents.

He would … come in early the next morning before others arrived, access the ATMs, take the precise amount he had taken the night before from the ATMs, and put them in the cash register,” prosecutor Alexander Matic told the court.

Matic added that the banker was gambling far more than was sustainable on his £47K a year salary.

The defendant admitted to stealing from the bank after two internal NatWest investigations, insisting he had acted alone.

Leniency Raises Eyebrows

Judge Tony Baumgartner imposed a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years. The order requires Toms to complete unpaid community work and participate in a rehabilitation program.

The court heard Toms had been diagnosed with cancer, which was weighed alongside his addiction when deciding the sentence.

Tom’s attorney Siddick Gokhool told the court his client was “remorseful, and he is not only remorseful for what he has done, but also for NatWest and mainly for his family.”

Toms attempted partial restitution by cashing out his pension, repaying about £100K. Even so, NatWest remains short nearly £250K, according to court records.

The sentencing comes at a time when the UK is tightening its regulatory stance on gambling. The government’s recent white paper on gambling reform emphasized affordability checks and stronger safeguards for people showing signs of harm.

Supporters of those reforms will say Toms’ case illustrates why the safeguards matter.
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Philip Conneller

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August 31, 2025