It started with a $300 bonus credit for FanDuel. Samith A. began receiving referrals from friends to join the betting app when New York legalized online sports betting in January 2022. The then-22-year-old sales specialist had never placed a bet, but the promotional offers tempted him—up to $1,000 for “risk-free” bets—so he downloaded the app and started placing a few wagers on the NBA. A few months passed, and nothing really hit . . . until something did. He won a $300 bet on a Lakers-Jazz game. He was up double—and he hadn’t even spent any of his own money yet. That was the first time he felt that gambling high.

Summer came around, and Samith was bored, so he took $25 and selected a bunch of MLB teams for a parlay based on minus odds, meaning they were projected to win. He ended up turning that $25 into $2,000 in one day. Quick cash that makes you think, If I’d put in $250, I would’ve had $20,000. If I’d put in $2,500, I would’ve had $200,000. Challenge accepted.

Samith’s social feeds spurred him on. Gambling Twitter is filled with heavily promoted communities of sports bettors, like @GoldBoysBets, which charges for access to its picks and entices people to pay for them by posting its winnings (think turning $5 into $5,000, $1,800 into $60,000). 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.