Financial guru Dave Ramsey laid into online sports betting, claiming it was “destroying young men in their 20s.” Ramsey made the remarks during his radio show. “FanDuel is a portal to hell. DraftKings ain’t king of anything except their pocketbook. And they are screwing an entire generation of young men,” he asserted. “You don’t win. That’s why they can afford to buy ads. They’re back-to-back-to-back every time you turn on a sporting event. They’re spending billions of dollars. You know where they’re getting that? It’s out of your kid’s freaking pockets. This is evil stuff right here.”

It’s not the first time Ramsey has spoken out against online betting. Last month, Ramsey fielded a call on “The Ramsey Show” from a concerned parent who was worried about their 21-year-old son’s heavy online gambling. Ramsey warned against gambling, comparing it to drugs. “This is cocaine,” he said. “You are screwing around with cocaine. You’re screwing around with fentanyl. You’re screwing around with crack. And it’s going to kill your little butt.” He called online betting “the fastest growing addiction in America,” claiming it was “Faster than cocaine, faster than drugs of any kind.”

A study from Siena College Research Institute (SCRI) and St. Bonaventure University’s Jandoli School of Communication found that 22% of all Americans had an online sports betting account. It found that half of men aged 18-49 had such accounts. 50% of those with sports betting had used a gambling addiction app. The study also found that 20% had lost money in a way that directly hurt their financial situation. 20% had also lied about how much they bet.

More concerning, the number of bettors who believe they can reliably make money from gambling has risen from 80% in 2024 to 86% in 2025. The growth of that belief was most pronounced in young bettors, with 82% of those aged 18 to 34 believing they could reliably make money in 2024. In 2025, that number had increased to 90%. In 2023, the National Council on Problem Gambling found that 30% of sports bettors experienced some sort of gambling problem, with 45% of those who bet on NFL games reporting they had lost more money than they could afford. Gambling Harm also highlighted the difficulty in making money reliably given the fact that the industry limits winners. So even if someone wins big, many gambling companies fine loopholes to make assertions of fraud or cheating to disqualify winners from big earnings. “Meanwhile, attempting to make money from sports betting will cause you problems. Sportsbooks could limit your account. Virtually every way you can improve your chances of winning will be frowned upon by the sportsbook,” concluded Gambling Harm. “Some sports betting jurisdictions and regulatory bodies are beginning to scrutinize these practices for fairness and consumer protection. This dynamic is among the reasons why you shouldn’t bet on sports. It’s virtually impossible to use sports betting as a reliable source of income.”