Sports betting was the gateway drug

I’ve been sports gambling since I was four years old. To be specific, I’ve been betting on horse races. I’m from Lexington, Kentucky, the horse capital of the world, and as one might intuit, the Kentucky Derby is a bit of a big deal for my family. For as long as I can remember, we’ve bet on the Derby. It was commonplace for my dad to ask me to pick a trifecta, or for me to draw a horse from a hat I paid five dollars into. So believe me when I say I’m not writing this from a high horse (pun fully intended). Gambling, the way I grew up with it, was deliberate. We set the stakes, usually $5 or $10, before the gates opened, and nobody went looking for another bet when our horse finished last. When the race ended, so did the betting. That is not what my friends have been doing. They’re betting on random football games between two teams they’ve never once watched play.

This excerpt comes from the named source. Read the original for the full reporting.