AUSTIN — Saul Malek knows the highs — and lows — that gambling addiction can bring. He ran up huge debts as a college sophomore trying to cover losing bets.

The 25-year-old Southern Methodist University graduate student is now a recovering gambling addict, counseling and helping others who are going down a similar path.

He sees a looming problem for young men like him if Texas passes sports betting legislation.

“I don’t think anyone that’s not really in gambling themselves can really appreciate the scope of the damage that it can bring,” he said.

For a third straight legislative session, gambling expansion is on the table, including mobile sports betting. The mobile sports gambling bills seek to make the Lone Star State one of the 33 states that allow for people to place bets simply by pulling out their phones.

But for all the money it might bring the state, there is a dark side: gambling addiction.

Texas, with its population of 30 million, has long been a target of the sports betting industry. Lobbyists tell lawmakers they could see $250 million a year in tax revenue if sports betting is legalized. Those projections may not play out. But something that is a sure bet, researchers say, is a rise in gambling addiction, particularly among young adults.

“It’s a wildfire,” said Matthew McMurray, an assistant professor at Miami (Ohio) University’s Institute for Responsible Gaming, Lotteries and Sport. “It’s a huge boom and everybody in the industry that studies these things saw it coming.”

Keith Whyte, the executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling, estimates 600,000 Texans could develop a gambling addiction, factoring research that about 2% nationally develop an addiction.

Two influential Republicans, Rep. Jeff Leach of Plano and Sen. Lois Kolkhorst of Brenham, are carrying the sports betting bills, which could mean the bills have a better chance than in previous sessions. Gov. Greg Abbott and House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, have also expressed support for expanding gambling in Texas. Both, however, have said they do not want to see slot machines at gas stations or convenience stores.

The sports betting bills have some provisions meant to deter people who might be at risk of developing an addiction. The bills would not allow advertising to people under 21, allocate a portion of the tax revenue to a problem gambling fund and create a self-exclusion list to block recovering addicts or people who think they are susceptible to excessive gambling from using digital sports betting apps.

But the bills include a provision that alarms problem gambling researchers and advocates: It would allow people to fund their gambling accounts with credit cards, something other states have outlawed.

“We can tell if someone is starting to have a problem with their gambling if they start using more and more credit cards, or more and more bank accounts and they are shifting between them,” said Lia Nower, a professor and director of the Center for Gambling Studies at Rutgers University.

Nower said people should only be allowed to fund their accounts with a debit card or a checking account.

“Then people are only playing with money they can afford to lose — and they may not even be able to afford to lose that,” she said.

Young men at higher risk

Malek estimates that he lost about $20,000 in gambling debts. He started with fantasy sports leagues when he was in middle school. By the time he was a sophomore in college, he was losing thousands of dollars a month as he tried to recover all the money that he had lost.

“I was betting all this money that I didn’t have, so I was still paying back a lot of the debt,” Malek said in a phone interview.

The winning bets elicited an intoxicating feeling, a sense of control and power.

“I felt a sort of power that’s very hard to conceptualize,” he said. “I felt better than all my peers and the fact that I won money made me feel like I was doing something cool.”

That Malek is under 30 is not a coincidence. Men are much more likely to become addicted to gambling than women, researchers say. And when it comes to sports betting, research has shown that young men are most at risk.

Part of it comes from biology, the prefrontal cortex, or the decision-making part of the brain, does not fully develop until the mid-to-late 20s, said Devin Mills, an assistant professor at Texas Tech’s Department of Community, Family and Addiction Sciences.

If sports betting is legalized in Texas, it would allow for people 21 and older to start placing bets. Some states, however, have lowered the age to 18.

“Now, that sounds harsh to our university students, but technically speaking, they do act a little bit more on impulse than people five or six years older than them,” Mills said.

Sports betting operators are aware of the population they target. The sports betting industry spends hundreds of millions of dollars annually on advertising, focusing on young adults. Several universities have also cut deals with Caesar’s Entertainment, allowing the company to advertise on campuses, The New York Times reported.

Public gambling figures, people like Barstool’s Dave Portnoy, or boxer and social media influencer Jake Paul, who have gained notoriety and a cult following for the bets they place. Portnoy, who has a history of misogynistic and racist behavior, as well as several accusations of sexual violence against women, posts weekly videos on Twitter to his 2.8 million followers of his reactions to games with thousands of dollars on the line.

Portnoy also posts pictures of bets he’s placed, wagering thousands of dollars at a time. Texas has its own famous bettors, including Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale, the Houston furniture store owner, who’s lost millions of dollars in individual bets. Earlier this year he lost $3 million when he bet that TCU would defeat Georgia in the College Football Playoff title game.

“Some of the ways this is portrayed are unrealistic and some of them are frankly irresponsible,” Whyte said. “People who don’t have much exposure to sports betting, their perception may be that wins happen all the time.”

The lawmakers carrying the sports betting bills in Texas are aware of the addiction concerns. Leach said he is comfortable with the bill as it’s currently written. Kolkhorst said she’s open to modifying the bill and mentioned that addiction is one of her “biggest concerns.”

“Anything and everything can be changed in this bill,” she said.

‘A light switch went off’

March Madness tips off this week, beginning an almost monthlong frenzy of office pools, busted brackets and likely billions of dollars in bets wagered. It will also include an advertising blitz that will be hard for recovering gambling addicts to stay away from.

In Ohio, which started mobile sports betting in January, McMurray, the Miami University professor, saw how it seemed like all airwaves — television and radio — were oversaturated with promotional opportunities.

“It was like a light switch went off and all of a sudden, everywhere you went, the only advertising that you saw was sports betting,” he said.

Between November 2020 to November 2021, the gaming industry spent close to $500 million on advertising, according to research firm Media Radar. Along with the advertising flood also comes promotional bets or offers, which would not just be allowed in Texas’ legislation, it would not be taxed.

Those promotional bets are important for the sports betting industry because it helps lure in people who might be hesitant to spend money, dangling things such as “risk-free” bets, where one gets money refunded if they lose their first bet.

But usually what’s refunded isn’t actual money but a credit that can only be spent on more bets.

“You’re saying ‘risk-free’ in the sense that it’s not your money, but you’re still putting up something of value, in this case virtual money,” said Dr. Timothy Fong, co-director of the University of California, Los Angeles Gambling Studies program. “I feel like the gambling industry needs to be much better regulated when it comes to these kinds of enticements.”

And companies like FanDuel and DraftKings have also signed deals with the sports leagues or individual analysts to the point where they can promote a bet during a national broadcast, which is watched by millions of people. NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley signed a deal with FanDuel right before the 2020-21 season where the host pushed for users to play on FanDuel as part of his predictions.

“I see it when I’m on Twitter, I see ads when I watch TV, or when I’m in a state with legal sports betting, it’s on their billboards,” said John Holden, an assistant professor of business and sports management at Oklahoma State University. “The amount of sports betting content is crazy right now. Everyone sees it as this pot of gold.”

Staff writer Philip Jankowski contributed to this report from Austin.