There is a political solution
By 
A couple points as a follow up to Paul’s post about the explosion in online sports gambling. First, I strongly recommend this story about someone who lost almost his entire six figure income in online sports wagering:
“Hysterical crying,” Holt said.
He hated himself. Several times, he tried quitting and would go days without placing a bet. Then his phone would ping. It was his VIP representative from FanDuel with a text message.
Hey Jordan … I just gave you a $200 bonus bet into your account.
They had their claws in him, and he knew it. The ease of betting on his phone, and the come-hithers that FanDuel unleashed as his losses mounted, were an irresistible combination. It was mobile app vs. human willpower, and it was a total mismatch. But Holt’s competitive nature wouldn’t allow him to stop.
“I couldn’t sleep,” he said. “I couldn’t think about anything else. All I could think about was winning back my money.”
He doesn’t blame anybody but himself for his gambling, but he also harbors some resentment toward FanDuel.
“I can’t hold back my anger for them,” Holt said. “I think the way FanDuel exploits people like me — if somebody doesn’t gamble for a couple of days, they all of the sudden get a deposit bonus, or, ‘Hey, you are part of the VIP Club!’ The way it’s being handled, it should be controlled more. It’s the Wild, Wild West.”
There’s nothing new about the inducements that online sportsbooks use to keep people betting beyond their means, but they’re much more broadly potent with online betting.
While I have little hope, at least in the short term, that the states that have legalized sportsbooks-in-your-phone will be able to break their own addiction to the revenue, I think it’s worth noting that there’s a perfectly viable non-prohibitionist policy, which happens to be the status quo in the state in which I presently reside: sports gambling is legal, but only in-person, cash, at a relatively small number of designated sites. This form of legalization is vastly less harmful than the policy path chosen by most of the legalizing states. As far as I can tell Washington’s policy hasn’t led to a huge new black market in sports betting, because illegal gambling operations are generally not going to be able to use an app and take credit cards.
Incidentally, one way you can tell how much more profitable online/app betting is is that if you go to place a bet at a sportsbook in Vegas now, you’re likely to be immediately approached by a pretty young woman encouraging you to sign up for the app instead. The lesson for policymakers should be obvious even if executing it is not going to be easy. I’m happy that Olympia has stood up to the lobbies so far at least.