When you're deep in gambling, it can feel like the only thing that exists. The next bet. The next deposit. The next way to win it back. Everything else fades: your friends, your family, your plans, even the person you used to be.Matt Burgiss knows that feeling. Ten...
The Deaths Nobody Counts: Why Gambling Carries Such a High Suicide Risk
It's late. You're driving home, or lying awake, after a loss you can't take back. You've done the math on what you owe, and it doesn't work. You can't tell anyone, because then they'd know. And a voice in your head starts telling you everyone would be better off...
“The Only Way Out Was to Continue”: What Losing Control Feels Like
It’s Sunday. You told yourself last week would be the last week. You’re down more than you can admit to anyone, so you place one more bet, because winning it back feels like the only way to make this go away. Part of you knows it won’t work. You do it anyway.
If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. This week’s Sunday Project started with the people who are in it right now: gambling, trying to stop, and wondering how. Host Deborah Buhaj, a gambling addiction therapist, asked the panel one question. When you were gambling, did you ever believe there was no way to stop?
Every one of them said yes.
There’s Always Been Gambling. Never Like This.
It's Sunday afternoon. A young man is on the couch with the game on, but his eyes are mostly on his phone. He's got a bet on the next drive, a prop on the quarterback, and a parlay running on games he isn't even watching. Ten years ago, none of this would have been...
“I Don’t Know You, But I Know You”: Bob’s Story
It's late in the fourth quarter. Your team is losing, but that doesn't matter anymore. You've got a prop bet on the quarterback's completions, a live bet on the next field goal, and another game starting in twenty minutes. When it's over, a friend asks, "Did they...
Profit Over Protection: What a ProPublica Investigation Reveals About Sportsbooks and Problem Gambling
On the morning of this week's Sunday Project, Marc Lefkowitz sat down to breakfast with nine men in gambling treatment. Marc has worked in the gambling field for more than 30 years and has been in his own recovery for over 43. He asked each of them the same question:...
Collecting or Chasing? What Parents Need to Know About Card Collecting and Gambling
Your son loves Pokémon cards. Or baseball cards. He watches YouTubers open packs, talks about "hits" and keeps asking for money for one more box. It looks like a harmless hobby and for many kids it is. But for some, collecting has quietly turned into something closer...
Faster, Smarter, Harder to Stop: How Betting Changed
Gambling used to come with built-in pauses. A bet placed before kickoff was fixed until the final whistle, three hours later. At the track, there were 25 minutes between races. Betting again meant waiting for the next game or the next race and that wait was a chance...
The Questions Parents Should Be Asking
Your son seems anxious. Maybe low. His grades are slipping, he's always on his phone, he's pulling away from friends. Money keeps disappearing and he's asking you for more. You might put it down to depression, ADHD, or just a hard patch. Marc Lefkowitz, who has worked...
When the bet isn’t on the game any more
On 5 September, LeBron James posted a 14-second video: an elevator, its floors labelled sports, politics, crypto, economy. With it, he became Polymarket's first athlete partner. Money has orbited LeBron James for a long time. He was the first active NBA player to be...