McKay Coppins

Self-exclusion form is a form that most states that have legalized online sports betting offer, where if you think you are at risk of gambling addiction or you think you are becoming a problem gambler, you can fill out this form, submit it to the state, and it legally prohibits online sports books from taking your action.

Yeah.

that you will not be allowed to bet for a determined period of time.

In Virginia, you can ban yourself for one year, five years, or for life.

The answer is basically I lost everything.

At the end of the season, I had lost $9,891.

Wow.

Yeah.

And as much as I tried to make this a realistic simulation of gambling, I was playing with a safety net, right?

I always knew that I wasn't going to lose my own money in doing this.

But the temptation to just keep going is...

is really strong for gamblers.

And any gambler will talk to you about this, whether they're a gambling addict or just kind of a recreational gambler who does it a few times a year.

All of them will tell you that there is this kind of reality-distorting effect that gambling has on you.

It almost doesn't matter how much you lose.

You convince yourself that the way to fix the problem is to gamble more.

And that makes gambling different from pretty much every other vice.

It's harder than I would like to admit.

I was just watching a Celtics game the other night with my son.

And, you know, he was just enjoying it in kind of the purity of a young sports fan.