{"id":48645,"date":"2026-01-12T16:17:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T21:17:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=48645"},"modified":"2026-01-12T16:17:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T21:17:30","slug":"portal-to-hell-dave-ramsey-goes-after-online-gambling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/01\/portal-to-hell-dave-ramsey-goes-after-online-gambling.html","title":{"rendered":"‘Portal to Hell.’ Dave Ramsey Goes After Online Gambling"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Adobe Stock | Inset: @DaveRamsey \/ X<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Financial guru Dave Ramsey laid into online sports betting, claiming it was \u201cdestroying young men in their 20s.\u201d Ramsey made the remarks during his radio show<\/a>. \u201cFanDuel is a portal to hell. DraftKings ain\u2019t king of anything except their pocketbook. And they are screwing an entire generation of young men,\u201d he asserted. \u201cYou don\u2019t win. That\u2019s why they can afford to buy ads. They\u2019re back-to-back-to-back every time you turn on a sporting event. They\u2019re spending billions of dollars. You know where they\u2019re getting that? It\u2019s out of your kid\u2019s freaking pockets. This is evil stuff right here.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first time Ramsey has spoken out against online betting. Last month, Ramsey fielded a call on \u201cThe Ramsey Show\u201d from a concerned parent who was worried about their 21-year-old son\u2019s heavy online gambling. Ramsey warned against gambling, comparing it to drugs. “This is cocaine,\u201d he said. \u201cYou are screwing around with cocaine. You\u2019re screwing around with fentanyl. You\u2019re screwing around with crack. And it\u2019s going to kill your little butt.\u201d He called online betting \u201cthe fastest growing addiction in America,\u201d claiming it was \u201cFaster than cocaine, faster than drugs of any kind.\u201d<\/p>\n

A study<\/a> from Siena College Research Institute (SCRI) and St. Bonaventure University\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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. \u201cMeanwhile, 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,\u201d concluded Gambling Harm. \u201cSome 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\u2019t bet on sports. It\u2019s virtually impossible to use sports betting as a reliable source of income.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Financial guru Dave Ramsey laid into online sports betting, claiming it was \u201cdestroying young men in their 20s.\u201d Ramsey made the remarks during his radio show. \u201cFanDuel is a portal to hell. DraftKings ain\u2019t king of anything except their pocketbook. And they are screwing an entire generation of young men,\u201d he asserted. \u201cYou don\u2019t win.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":48648,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"\n'Portal to Hell.' 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