Mark Schlabach, ESPN

ATLANTA — Even though a PGA Tour spokesperson said the tour has not seen an increase in spectators attempting to distract golfers for betting purposes, Jon Rahm said Tuesday that players hear about gambling “every single round.”

“That happens way more often than you guys may hear,” Rahm told reporters Tuesday at a news conference ahead of this week’s Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club. “I mean, it’s very, very present. In golf, spectators are very close, and even if they’re not directly talking to you, they’re close enough to where if they say to their buddy, ‘I bet you 10 bucks he’s going to miss it,’ you hear it.”

PGA Tour president Tyler Dennis confirmed Tuesday that a fan was ejected from the third round of last week’s BMW Championship for allegedly yelling “Pull it!” while Max Homa was attempting a short putt on the 17th green at Olympia Fields Country Club outside Chicago. Homa told reporters that the fan had bet $3 on him to miss the putt. Homa made the 5-footer.

“I love that people can gamble on golf, but that is one thing I’m worried about,” Homa said. “It’s just always something that’s on your mind. It’s on us to stay focused or whatever, but it’s just annoying when it happens. … Fans are so great about being quiet when we play. I think they are awesome. When anybody ever talks, it’s so unintentional. They don’t know we’re hitting. It just sucks when it’s incredibly intentional.”

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said the incident was “unfortunate.”

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by Rachel Epstein, Men’s Health

That FOMO. Samith joined the group and started placing bets on sports he didn’t even watch, like football. Then tennis. Then the random overseas games at 2:00 a.m. He would win some, lose some, but he was basically breaking even. Then he started betting even larger amounts of money trying to get ahead. When he lost, he’d keep betting higher amounts to make back what he lost, and he’d lose that, too. At one point, he was losing $3,000 a week. He was continually transferring money from his savings and paychecks to his debit card. From September to November, he was down $12,000.

Thanksgiving weekend came around, and there were a lot of promotional offers on football, so Samith placed a $200 special bet on every NFL team getting a touchdown and field goal. He won all his money back, but he promised himself he’d take fewer risks. Still, he ended up losing $6,000 by the end of January. That’s when he decided to self-exclude (aka ban himself) from FanDuel for a month. “You have to sit with yourself and ask, Where is this leading toward?” he says. “Is this something that is bringing you happiness, or is it leading toward an addiction?”

A FEW YEARS ago, it would have been unheard of for an NFL announcer to discuss which team the money line was favoring in the game they were covering, or for viewers to watch commercial after commercial from sports-betting apps during NBA games. Since the Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act in 2018, 38 states plus D. C. have legalized sports betting as a quick way to increase tax revenue. No longer the shady pastime our dads did under the table, sports betting has exploded into a $7.5 billion industry (on track to become $182 billion by 2030) that’s become more accessible—and more embedded in our society—than ever.

According to the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG), we’re experiencing the largest and fastest expansion of gambling in our nation’s history. The American Gaming Association (AGA) reports that the number of Americans open to placing a sports bet has grown by 24 million since 2019. This unprecedented growth is attributed to easy access to mobile sports betting, as well as exposure to sports betting through sports broadcasts, sports-betting advertisements, and celebrity and athlete sportsbook partnerships that normalize—and encourage—betting. In the first quarter of 2023, Americans wagered a record $31.11 billion on sports—a 15 percent increase compared with the same period in 2022.

Five years into the widespread legalization of sports betting, we’re at an inflection point. While the reason behind the bipartisan effort to legalize it is clear (hello, money), it doesn’t come without a cost: As sports betting becomes more and more accessible, the number of people who are likely to develop a gambling addiction will continue to increase. The NCPG estimated that the risk for a gambling addiction rose by 30 percent between 2018 and 2021, particularly among men ages 18 to 24. Men are more likely to have a gambling problem than women, and sports bettors are much higher-intensity gamblers overall, with live in-game betting being associated with greater levels of impulsivity.

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by Rachel Epstein, Men’s Health

Men’s Health reached out to the states that have legalized sports betting to find out how much tax revenue they earned from legalized sports betting in 2022, and how much they currently allocate to helping people with gambling problems. Some of the numbers may surprise you.

CLICK TO JUMP TO YOUR STATE:
Alabama• Alaska• Arizona• Arkansas• California• Colorado• Connecticut• Delaware• Florida• Georgia• Hawaii• Idaho• Illinois• Indiana• Iowa• Kansas• Kentucky• Louisiana• Maine• Maryland• Massachusetts• Michigan• Minnesota• Mississippi• Missouri• Montana• Nebraska• Nevada• New Hampshire• New Jersey• New Mexico• New York• North Carolina• North Dakota• Ohio• Oklahoma• Oregon• Pennsylvania• Rhode Island• South Carolina• South Dakota• Tennessee• Texas• Utah• Vermont• Virginia• Washington• Washington, D.C.• West Virginia• Wisconsin• Wyoming

Alabama

This state has not legalized sports betting.

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Alaska

This state has not legalized sports betting.

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Arizona

Tax Revenue: $28.9M | Allocation: $2M*

The Arizona Department of Gaming Division of Problem Gambling receives 2 percent of tribal gaming contributions to the Arizona Benefits fund, which is used for the prevention, education, and treatment programs for people and families affected by problem gambling. This results in approximately $2 million dollars per fiscal year in funding.

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Rachel Epstein and Illustrations by Neil Jamieson, Men’s Health

AFEW YEARS ago, it would have been unheard of for an NFL announcer to discuss which team the money line was favoring in the game they were covering, or for viewers to watch commercial after commercial from sports-betting apps during NBA games. Since 2018, 38 states plus D.C. have legalized sports betting as a quick way to increase tax revenue. No longer the shady pastime our dads did under the table, sports betting has exploded into a $7.5 billion industry (on track to become $182 billion by 2030) that’s become more accessible—and more embedded in our society—than ever.

But what does this mean for more than half of Americans who currently live in a state where sports betting is legal? According to the National Council on Problem Gambling, the risk for a gambling addiction increased by 30 percent from 2018 to 2021, particularly among young men ages 18 to 24. To find out more, Men’s Health conducted its own survey of men across the country. Of those who have placed a sports bet in the past 12 months, nearly 1 in 5 allot a quarter of their paycheck to sports betting, 58 percent say that sports betting has affected their mental health, and 43 percent know someone who has or may have a sports-betting addiction.

It makes sense: With mobile sports-betting apps at people’s fingertips, as well as increased exposure to sports betting through sports broadcasts, sports-betting advertisements, and celebrity and athlete sportsbook partnerships, the temptation to bet is everywhere. And if we don’t start paying attention, we’ll potentially have a whole new generation of men with gambling addictions, which is linked to debt, depression, anxiety, and even suicide.

This brings us to our series of stories below, where Men’s Health reports on the dangers of America’s sports-betting boom. However, we’re not here to simply raise awareness about the issue. We’re here to help. Once you learn about the human cost of sports betting’s widespread legalization and how much money (or lack thereof) your state is allocating to problem-gambling resources, we have an expert-backed quiz to determine if you’re addicted to sports betting. If that quiz reveals some red flags, you’ll find stories from real guys on their paths to recovery, as well as tips to stop gambling for good, steps for paying off your debt, and treatment resources.

Sports betting as we’ve known it was just the beginning. It’s a whole new game now.

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David Purdum, ESPN

The PGA Tour said Monday that it has not seen an uptick in spectators attempting to distract golfers — potentially for betting purposes — since legal sports gambling began spreading around the nation.

A fan was ejected from the BMW Championship on Saturday for allegedly yelling “Pull it!” while Max Homa was attempting a short put on the 17th green. Homa said the fan had bet $3 on him to miss the putt.

Laura Neal, the PGA Tour’s executive vice president of brand communications, told ESPN on Monday that security teams will take “swift and immediate action to protect the integrity of the competition” but added that no new measures have been in place.

“This isn’t rampant,” Neal said Monday. “Of course, for our security team, we want to make sure our players have the proper arena to compete in, but [there’s been] nothing outside the ordinary since gaming has become legal.”

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Matt Hughes and Kieran Fill, Dailymail

West Ham’s shirt sponsor Betway were responsible for reporting the suspicious betting patterns that caused the collapse of Lucas Paqueta’s proposed £85million transfer to Manchester City this week amidst an FA probe into alleged breaches of gambling rules. 

Mail Sport has learned that Betway’s integrity alert system was triggered by a series of bets they received on the Brazilian midfield player to be booked in West Ham’s Premier League match against Aston Villa on 12 March, which they immediately reported to the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA), a global group of hundreds of bookmakers responsible for policing irregular betting in the gambling industry.

Paqueta was shown a yellow card with 14 minutes remaining of the 1-1 draw at the London Stadium, leaving Betway liable to pay out the winning bets. After receiving the integrity alert the IBIA reported the matter to FIFA who then passed it on the FA, who have begun their own investigation.

The suspicious bets in question are understood to been traced to Paqueta Island in Guanabara Bay, near Rio de Janeiro, which is where Paqueta grew up. Whilst their main offices are in London, Malta, Guernsey and Cape Town, Betway have a market presence in Brazil, where they take a large number of bets on football and Esports in particular.

Although the precise figures remain unknown the volume of money staked on Paqueta to be booked against Aston Villa appears to have been significant as his price to receive a yellow card had collapsed to odds-on before kick-off, despite the fact that he had only been booked three times previously by that stage of the season. The 25-year-old was subsequently booked by Chris Kavanagh for a late challenge on John McGinn, the only booking of the game.

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ESPN Staff, ESPN

This excerpt is from “Gambler: Secrets from a Life at Risk,” an autobiography by Billy Walters, who is widely considered the GOAT of American sports bettors.

I didn’t realize it then, but when I went broke the first time in my life — betting on the 1955 World Series at the age of nine with the Munfordville town grocer — I was taking the first step toward preparing myself to write this chapter. Welcome to my master class for sports betting.

From that moment until now, I have been through more trials and tribulations than anyone could ever imagine. It’s safe to say that, over the course of my sixty-plus years of betting, I have wagered billions of dollars (yes, billions).

I also have spent countless millions of dollars trying to stay ahead of the game. If we had not updated our computer models and I hadn’t reinvented how I think about sports at least fifty different times, I would have been out of business way back during the Reagan administration.

The truth is, until I decided to write this book, I would not have taken $20 million to share the details of my system. Friends ask me why I’d want to give away my secrets now. The simple answer is I’m not getting any younger and I want to give something back to sports fans.

Let me start out with the absolute basics: there generally are many ways to bet, but the main one is spread betting.

In a spread bet, the score matters. For example, if the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are favored by 7.5 points against the New Orleans Saints. You can either take Tampa Bay at -7.5 (which means they have to win by 8 points or more for you to win the bet) or New Orleans at +7.5 (which means they have to either lose by 7 points or fewer, or win the game, for you to win the bet). In either case, you generally must pay an additional 10 percent to make the bet. So a $100 wager will cost you $110. This is called the “juice” or the “vig,” from the Russian/Yiddish word “vigorish.”

Because you have to pay that extra $10, it means you’ll need to win 52.38 percent of the time to break even.

Here’s another way of putting it: even if you pick winners half the time after laying $110 to win $100, you will only get back 95.4 percent of your money – because you have to pay the bookmaker. Consider you place two bets laying $110/$100 for a total investment of $220. With one loss and one win, you get back $210 on your winning bet (your bet plus the winning of $100) and you lose $110 on the losing bet. Bottom line: you win $210 on a $220 investment, which is 95.4 percent. This is worse than most slot machines, which on average return about 96 percent of the money played. The odds are even worse if you’re playing parlays and teasers.

In a moneyline bet, you’re simply wagering on who will win. Moneyline bets are common in baseball, tennis, soccer, and other events where the scores tend to be smaller numbers, but you can bet the moneyline for any event.

Favorites in a moneyline bet are denoted with a minus sign. Underdogs are a plus sign. Let’s say, for example, the Buccaneers are playing the Saints and Tampa is a -180 favorite and New Orleans is a +160 underdog. If you like Tampa to win, you must bet $180 to win $100. If you like New Orleans, you bet $100 to win $120. The final score doesn’t matter-you win if your team wins. The bookmaker’s fee is baked into the numbers.

My primary message is that the average Joe or Jane faces an almost insurmountable set of disadvantages that virtually guarantee a significant loss over the long term unless you can flip the odds in your favor. I did that for thirty-six consecutive years, and I’ve developed a set of core principles for sports wagering that I’ll share with you now:

There are three essential elements of a good sports betting system: handicapping, a betting strategy and a money management plan. Money Management

Properly managing your money is almost as important as handicapping and betting strategy.

The first order of business: sit down and decide what you want to risk. Start with the assumption that you’ll lose it all. The simple fact is you can’t play without a bankroll, so the top priority should be to do everything possible to protect the money you decide to risk.

With that thought in mind, I recommend that you set specific limits on how much you wager. Ideally, you should not risk any more than 1 to 3 percent of your bankroll on any single bet. This allows you to spread the risk and limit significant losses.

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Armen Keteyian, The Fire Pit Collective

Given the artistic nature of the non-denial denial issued by Phil Mickelson on Thursday about whether he tried to bet $400,000 on the 2012 Ryder Cup,  there appears to be an assumption that the explosive allegation somehow went from the lips of Billy Walters to my ear and then straight into the book. Two cases in point: The Athletic opined that “the nature of the claims make it difficult if not impossible to verify both sides.” A LIV supporter tweeted, “Who do you believe? Six-time major champion, World Golf Hall of Famer, philanthropist, family man, and model citizen Phil Mickelson. OR Zero-time major champion and convicted felon Billy Walters? I’m gonna go with Lefty.”

For those who may be interested, here is the backstory:

I just about fell out of my chair on March 15, 2022, when Bill told me that Mickelson had called him in September 2012 to place a high-stakes bet on the U.S. team – of which Phil was a member – to beat the Europeans in the Ryder Cup at Medinah Country Club outside Chicago. Not only did Bill provide the specific amount ($400,000), he recalled his response to Phil as detailed in the book. As in, have you lost your effing mind?

My mind went straight into reporter mode. “Did you tell anybody about the phone call?” I asked Bill.

Turns out he had. Bill gave me the name of a high-ranking golf industry executive he had contacted after his conversation with Phil. A person I had already interviewed for the book.

Then I instinctively went into fact-checking mode.

Was the 2012 Ryder Cup held at Medinah? Check.

Was Phil on the team? Check.

Was the $400,000 figure consistent with Phil’s outsized betting pattern during that period? Check.   

How did the Americans do? They lost on the final day when the Europeans pulled off the greatest comeback in Ryder Cup history, the so-called “Miracle at Medinah.”   

The next thing I did was reach out to the golf executive. According to the notes in my reporting notebook number six, I spoke with the executive on March 28, 2022. I taped the call. According to my transcript, the executive said he was watching the Ryder Cup on television when Bill called. Here’s what the executive said Bill told him: “You’re not going to believe what this dumb motherfucker wants me to do. He wants me to bet 400,000 on the USA to win. Not on his individual match or anything but the team to win.”

The executive continued: “So the reason I know it’s Medinah—and I’m 100 percent positive on this—I’m like everybody else, I associate certain events with other events. I remember Rory McIIroy oversleeping the last day of the singles and almost missing the thing. I know that was the same event. I’m 100 percent sure.”

Well, I wasn’t that sure. So I researched Rory and the 2012 Ryder Cup. Sure enough, news reports had him oversleeping that morning and almost missing his singles match. At that point, given the specifics of the second interview and the key facts lining up, I felt we had enough to include the anecdote in the book. Eventually, so did our editors and libel lawyers.

Still, I went a step further and asked Bill if he had told anyone else about Phil’s desire to bet on the Americans. Indeed, he also shared the story with a longtime friend who happens to be a world-class poker player and big-time sports gambler. So I called that person and taped that interview as well. Bill’s good friend told me that he clearly remembered the Ryder Cup call. And that he made a five-figure (losing) bet on the Americans based on their conversation. “I’m sure Phil said what Bill said,” he added. “What motive would Bill have for making this up?”

Based on my career as an investigative reporter for the past 40-odd years, I was all too aware of the incendiary nature of Mickelson’s Ryder Cup call. And if I didn’t feel completely confident that we could defend it in a court of law—my standard of reporting—it never would have seen the light of day. Which is how I feel about every last word in Gambler.

And Bill, to his credit, felt exactly the same way. 

Adam Rittenberg, ESPN

Four more Iowa State football players and three more members of the Iowa football program have been charged in the state’s investigation into sports wagering, which alleges that several athletes placed bets on games in which they played.

According to criminal complaints filed Thursday in district courts for Story and Johnson counties, the players face the charge of tampering with records, an aggravated misdemeanor, for allegedly concealing their identity in electronic wagering activities. The group includes Iowa State starting running back Jirehl Brock and three teammates with starting experience — offensive tackle Jake Remsburg, defensive tackle Isaiah Lee and tight end DeShawn Hanika.

Iowa wide receiver Jack Johnson was also charged, as were former Iowa players Arland Bruce IV and Reggie Bracy, who transferred to Oklahoma State and Troy, respectively. Iowa student manager Owen O’Brien was charged as well.

All four ISU athletes charged on Thursday have not been practicing. Oklahoma State said Bruce has been practicing with the team this month. Iowa had no comment on Johnson other than to say it continues to cooperate with the investigation.

The charge carries a maximum sentence of up to two years in prison and a fine ranging from $855 to $8,540. According to the NCAA’s updated guidelines on gambling, athletes who wager on their own sports or others at their school can face permanent loss of eligibility. Another group of Iowa State and Iowa athletes was charged earlier this month in the state’s investigation, including ISU projected starting quarterback Hunter Dekkers. More than a dozen athletes have now been charged in the probe.

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David Purdum, ESPN

Phil Mickelson bet more than $1 billion on football, basketball and baseball over the past three decades and even allegedly attempted to place a $400,000 wager on Team USA in the 2012 Ryder Cup in which he participated, according to an upcoming book by renowned professional gambler Billy Walters.

Excerpts of the book “Gambler: Secrets from a Life of Risk” were first reported Thursday by Fire Pit Collective and provide the most detailed look yet at Mickelson’s sports gambling and his relationship with Walters, a Las Vegas businessman who is widely considered to be the most successful American bettor ever.

Citing betting records and “two very reliable sources,” Walters writes that from 2010 to 2014, Mickelson made 858 bets of $220,000 and 1,115 bets of $110,000. He estimates Mickelson endured losses of approximately $100 million while betting more than $1 billion over the past three decades.

“The only other person I know who surpassed that kind of volume is me,” Walters writes.

According to the book excerpts, in September 2012, Mickelson called Walters from Medinah Country Club during the 39th Ryder Cup and asked Walters to place a $400,000 wager for him on the U.S. team to win.

Walters responded by scolding Mickelson: “Have you lost your %&*$ing mind? Don’t you remember what happened to Pete Rose? You’re seen as the modern-day Arnold Palmer. You’d risk all that for this? I want no part of it.”

Walters added that he didn’t know whether Mickelson placed the bet elsewhere. The Americans lost the Ryder Cup to the Europeans by one point.

Mickelson denied ever betting on the Ryder Cup, saying later Thursday in a statement that he “would never undermine the integrity of the game.”

“I never bet on the Ryder Cup,” Mickelson said in his statement. “While it is well known that I always enjoy a friendly wager on the course, I would never undermine the integrity of the game. I have also been very open about my gambling addiction. I have previously conveyed my remorse, took responsibility, have gotten help, have been fully committed to therapy that has positively impacted me and I feel good about where I am now.”

Mickelson’s affinity and struggles with sports gambling have long been in the public domain. In 2015, court documents in a money laundering case revealed that nearly $3 million was transferred from Mickelson to an intermediary of “an illegal gambling operation.” In 2021, The Detroit News revealed that Mickelson had been linked in court documents to an alleged mob bookie in a 2007 trial.

Mickelson was not charged in either case, but stories of his gambling have surfaced throughout his golf career, in which he has made more than $96.6 million in PGA Tour on-course earnings. The six-time major champion also reportedly signed a multiyear contract with LIV Golf worth about $200 million.

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