Still, Jason considers himself “a slightly better case than average.” Since he joined Gamblers Anonymous, he’s heard stories of people losing homes and living out of their car. He would ultimately blow through “a couple hundred thousand dollars” before admitting he had become a problem gambler in May. “I felt like I had to be gambling at all times,” he said. It felt less “seedy,” he said, even if he would gamble until three in the morning while his kids slept “and then wake up and do it again.” By this year, Jason didn’t go a day without gambling. Regardless of the legality, the growing prevalence of gambling in society helped him legitimize his habit to himself. “But there was never any red tape to get past in order to play those games,” he said. Unlike sports betting, online casino gambling remained illegal in Illinois, and Jason wasn’t sure if the online games he was playing were legal or not.

“Being able to just sit in bed and go on my phone and gamble made it almost impossible to stop.” But, he added, “I didn’t have to explain where I was or anything like that. “I could do everything you could do at a casino on my phone,” he said. By comparison, his phone allowed him to be “100 percent plugged in” from anywhere, without people asking questions. The casinos, he came to believe, were less efficient-“too much non-gambling time,” he said-and led to questions about where he had been. Soon enough, however, he preferred online gambling.

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