“[These apps] are looking back and saying, ‘How do we push the limit based on what the government allows us to do, based on what our consumers feel is inappropriate?’” Carter said. “There’s no reason to think they’re not going to continue to uncover ways to entice the gambling audience with greater greater opportunities, slicing up the bets, even more so the profits.”

Certain apps, such as PrizePicks and Underdog, only take parlay wagers, the least profitable form of sports betting for a gambler. As Washington Post contributor Danny Funt points out, on a typical bet, if one team is going to win the game, a sports book will make $5 for every $100 wagered. For parlays, customers tend to lose $30 for every $100 wagered.

But the enticement to win big is too much for some people to resist.

“I talk to people my age and people [in Gen-Z], and they only bet parlays, especially like 10-leg parlays that are basically just buying a lottery ticket,” Millennial Funt said. “The odds that you’re gonna pick 10 things, and they’re all gonna be successful, is astronomical. … Parlays are just lighting your money on fire.”

Funt is currently writing a book about sports betting legalization. He’s been following some of these companies for years and has seen some of the new tactics these apps use to make it even easier to gamble.

“If you’re not a ‘traditional’ sports bettor, you’re like, ‘I don’t want to go up to a counter and say a bet and get it wrong and then, this guy who’s taking bets, gets mad at me.’ So that has been a barrier to entry for people, and they’re trying to do away with that,” Funt said. “On PrizePicks or Underdog, often instead of saying ‘This combination is +300’ — like traditional gambling verbiage — they’ll say, ‘3x your money,’ so that it’s as universal as possible.”

Funt even noted a unique marketing tactic Underdog would use to entice people to bet. He saw that the app introduced a dating app-like interface to place your bets. The user would just need to swipe right to add a pick to their parlay or swipe left to see the next selection.

“You can imagine how it just makes it as frictionless as possible and it disguises how bad the odds are,” Funt said.

The decision behind implementing the “Superstar Swipe” interface is to promote a switch of fandoms from teams more toward players, according to Underdog’s senior director of sports betting and business development, Matt Garrigan.

“At the core of the Underdog Sportsbook thesis is giving customers a unique and friendly way to engage with our products, and constantly iterate and innovate to build formats they will love to play,” Garrigan said in an August 2024 interview with EGaming Review. “Superstar Swipe is an example of that commitment to our customers.”

Sports gambling apps want to make it as easy as possible for their customers to bet, removing the barrier to entry as much as possible Carter added. 

Many college students are falling into the trap. A poll done by Intelligent.com of 986 college students in December 2022 found that one in six college students who gamble on sports reported using financial aid or student loan money to place their bets. It also found that just under a third of those surveyed said they will run up their credit card or even spend less on necessities such as food to fund their gambling. 

“The influx of promotional materials and marketing and advertising has made it seem [like] something that’s fun and recreational,” Field said. “All of these [marketing] elements are combining to create a space where people feel more normal when they’re betting and more supported by friends and because there’s a false sense that this could be a skill-based pursuit, that it might be a viable way of making money.” 

“‘Risk-free’ means there is no risk. [But] there is risk. Undeniably, there is risk,” Funt said. “The thing is they don’t function the same as money, so that’s misleading. You don’t get the bonus money, you only get the payout. So in that case, if I bet 100 bonus dollars … on a -10,000 bet …, I make 5 cents off that. So that’s deceptive. I would say calling anything ‘free’ that you have to pay for, or risk losing money to get, is not free.”

USC professor Carter sees the “free money” as a different marketing tactic altogether. 

“[The companies] are saying, ‘Hey, the lifetime value of one of these gamblers, particularly at a younger age, is tremendous, and so we can run these promotions and make them feel as though we’re giving away a lot of money and opportunity, when in fact, we know we’re going to get that back over time if we continue to market to them,’” Carter said. “It’s a way to get these young people in, knowing that if they’re of that age and they maintain a gambling presence for their adulthood, that’s going to be worth a tremendous amount of money to the gambling operations.”

Although many Gen-Z gamblers don’t have the “bankroll” to be placing many big-money bets, the addiction can start very early, regardless of how much is being lost on a single bet.

“Your brain isn’t fully developed until you’re like 25, so as a result, you’re particularly inclined to impulsive behavior or risk seeking, both of which are just classic traits of gamblers,” Funt said. “[As someone in Gen-Z], you’re basically predisposed to overdo it [with] betting, which is alarming.”

The marketing of sports gambling has been a point of concern for many, including those in the government. Right as March Madness — the NCAA’s end-of-season basketball tournaments — was about to start this year, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, and U.S. Rep. Paul D. Tonko, a New York Democrat, reintroduced the Supporting Affordability and Fairness with Every Bet bill. 

The SAFE Bet Act seeks to create protections for consumers when gambling on sports, as well as standards for the mobile sports gambling industry. The bill would require states where sports gambling is legal to comply with a new set of federal regulations in three main categories: marketing, affordability and artificial intelligence.

“We have seen far too many — especially young people — driven into gambling abuse disorder, which is a disease. Like all addictions, we must take every step to prevent and treat it — not amplify or exploit it,” Blumenthal said in a press release when the act was reintroduced. “Sports betting has become a science for gambling entities. It is the science of exploitation and targeting and tracking individuals who are prone to addiction. The science of targeting and tracking gamblers who lose bets and enticing them to bet more and more until they are driven into ruin.”

Notable regulations include disallowing sportsbook marketing during live sports broadcasts, getting rid of “programming designed to induce gambling with ‘bonus’ ‘no sweat,’ ‘bonus bets’ or odds boosts,” prohibiting apps from allowing more than five deposits in a 24-hour cycle, and to ban the use of artificial intelligence to monitor a customer’s gambling habits and offer “individualized promotions,” based on the AI among other things.

However, the efforts of Tonko and Blumenthal — as well as by the city of Baltimore— have been isolated. Since the Supreme Court decision legalizing it, sports gambling has largely gone unchecked in the eyes of the law. The city of Baltimore’s case is the first by an American public entity against online sportsbooks since the 2018 case that opened the floodgates.

“[Other than] these sort of sporadic efforts to regulate or lessen the aggressive marketing to kids, it really seems like the Wild West right now,” Field said.