More than a third of boys under 18 have gambled — and 40 percent regret it, according to a 2025 survey by the non-profit Common Sense Media.

“Gambling, especially online sports betting, is becoming more common for students and it’s not always something people talk about openly,” said Director of Psychological Counseling Kim Cratty. “Hearing from someone who’s actually been through it feels different than a typical presentation. It’s more relatable and sticks with you.”

To that end, Cratty invited gambling addiction recovery content creator Rob Minnick to campus to reveal the reality of the sports betting and gambling culture. Minnick spoke to students in school meeting, and in a class discussion, about struggling for half a decade to break his seven-hour-a-day addiction to online sportsbook betting that turned into casino stints playing blackjack and slot machines.

“I lost friendships, relationships,” he said. “I lost six years of my time, my productivity. I was behind in life because I was gambling.”

Since he quit for good in 2022, Minnick has been focused on sharing — the tools he used to recover and the lessons he learned the hard way about navigating “big win” traps — via his platform/podcast ODAAT Gambling Awareness, which stands for “One Day at a Time.”

“I hope students walked away with a deeper awareness of how quickly and subtly gambling can become problematic, especially in environments where it feels normalized or low-risk,” said Cratty. “More importantly, I hope they reflect on decision-making, impulse control and the importance of asking for help when something feels off.”

Minnick’s life story “can also help reduce stigma and encourage students to look out for one another,” Cratty added. “Ultimately, the goal is not just awareness, but helping students think critically about their choices and understand the potential long-term impact.”

THE START

It only took a week for Minnick, who described himself then as “the biggest sports fan in the world,” to get hooked to gambling, beginning with $10 “DFS,” daily fantasy sports.

“I started doing that when I was 18, because I saw the commercials on TV telling me I'd get free money if I signed up,” he told students. He quickly grew bored of small wagers, moved into parlay betting and then said, “Once I started gambling, if I didn't have money on the sports, I didn't want to watch. It felt like a waste of time.”

Within two weeks of starting gambling, he recalled, “My perspective shifted and I didn't enjoy sports anymore. What I enjoyed was gambling on them.”

THE TROUBLE

For the next five years, Minnick described living a rollercoaster of winning big, losing bigger, taking out lines of credit and ultimately owing more money than he was able to pay.

He had to ask his parents for help, which he said they agreed to give it because he’d “made a mistake… But because it was gambling [as opposed to a problem with drugs or alcohol] it wasn’t taken seriously.”

THE WAKEUP

Not even realizing that “nothing else on Earth made me feel excited or happy” prompted him to permanently stop gambling, until he accidentally dropped a big chunk of cash on the floor of a casino.

“I freaked out … like, Oh, my God, I might get robbed,” he said. “Then once I had everything in my hand, I thought, ‘Matt, I should just throw those back on the floor.’ Because if I throw it back on the floor, or if I go back out into the casino, it's all going to the same place anyway … No matter what happens, I will end up losing this money.”

Facing that hard truth (plus support groups, intentionally focusing on alternative activities and removing access to betting) has kept Minnick from gambling ever since.

THE LESSONS

Step No. 1 to quitting “is deciding that you need to,” he told students toward the end of his talk before taking questions. “It's reaching a point where you're realizing that gambling is taking more from you than it's giving you.”

Showing students a list of 20 questions, he asked them to consider if they can relate to any. Answering yes to more than seven could mean that you have a problem with gambling, he said.

“Does that mean that it's going to completely consume and destroy your life? Maybe not. But it’s something to keep in mind.”

If gambling turns from budgeted entertainment to “the point at which it becomes the only thing that you want to do,” Minnick said. “That becomes a problem.”