Eh I dunno. In my experience the “working class” sports gamblers who very likely should not be engaging in regular betting are not participating in bets that would be remotely life changing. And they know that. They are putting down $5-20 bets with maybe $100 payouts on parlays or whatnot. They talk about it maybe paying a utility bill or pay for drinks at the bar for game day.

Multi-state lotteries seem to be far more of the “hopeless” case where there is actually a life changing amount of money up for grabs. But far less consistent dopamine hits. The regular low stakes sports gamblers who piss away their paychecks in small chunks over time are doing it for those small wins and chasing the next one.

That’s not to invalidate the point people feel hopeless, I just don’t think the average “degenerate” Fanduel bettor really is chasing that sort of thing.

In most forms of gambling you could drop your whole paycheck on gambling and still not end up terribly off. You'd be in about the position you would be in if you had to go to a check cashing place to cash your paycheck, although with more volatility. Dropping your entire paycheck worth of volume on slots and you are down what, like 5-10% on average -- most people have that much margin to spend on savings/discretionary/retirement.

Where you get in trouble is where you're cycling through multiples of your paycheck on wagers, recycling your bets. Then you're getting eaten for multiples of the house take on your income.