Bad Bet: How Online Gambling Is Destroying America (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780990409793)

BAD BET: How Online Gambling Is Destroying America exposes one of the fastest-growing and most overlooked addiction crises in the United States.

What was once limited to casinos and racetracks is now available 24 hours a day on smartphones, tablets, and computers. With the rapid expansion of legalized online sports betting, millions of Americans-particularly young men-are being drawn into a system designed to keep them playing, often at devastating personal cost.

In this powerful and eye-opening book, Jack Alan Levine, a recovering gambling addict, joins veteran journalist John Rabe to examine the rise of online gambling from two distinct but complementary perspectives. Levine offers a deeply personal account of addiction, revealing how gambling can take hold, escalate, and ultimately disrupt every aspect of a person's life. Rabe provides a broader lens, exploring how professional sports, media, and technology have fueled the normalization and growth of betting across American culture.

Together, they uncover the mechanics behind the industry's rapid expansion, the psychological pull of constant access and in-game wagering, and the real-world consequences affecting individuals, families, and communities nationwide.

BAD BET is both a warning and a call to awareness. It challenges readers to look beyond the surface of entertainment and recognize the risks associated with a system where the odds are always in favor of the house. For anyone seeking to better understand the impact of online gambling-or to recognize its warning signs before it's too late-this book offers insight, perspective, and a closer look at a crisis that is only beginning to unfold.