Brendan Dwyer

I work with 18 to 24-year-olds on a daily basis, and I worry about their decision-making for anything they do.

They have overconfidence and regulation issues to everything.

And so when you add overconfidence and sports and money, it worries me even more.

Uh-huh.

because it's not just like going to Vegas.

If you go to Vegas and you play specific games, there is some skill and luck.

If you play blackjack, if you play poker, craps, there's more skill in those games than if you play roulette or a slot.

Those are more luck-based.

In sports,

you can have a much higher perception of the skill.

You think you are smarter, you know more.

And that enhanced illusion of control is what we call it, can be detrimental.

That's a very good point.

There is a feeling of wanting to have a stake and control in a certain situation that feels uncontrollable.

And this has been a growing trend really since the late 90s, early 2000s, when fantasy sports really took off as an activity where it went from being a few hundred thousand people playing it to millions.

Hmm.

People didn't want to just be a passive fan anymore.

They didn't want to sit on the couch and watch a game.

They wanted to have increased action so that there is a game going on within the game and they're actually pulling the strings of that game within the game.

Now we have betting in all the different ways.