Welcome back to the Fintech Takes podcast. I’m your host, Alex Johnson, and today we’re digging into one of the most urgent (and underdiscussed) financial issues in America: gambling. My guest is Alex DeMarco, founder and CEO of MoneyStack, who’s helping reframe gambling addiction not just as a behavioral health issue, but as a financial systems crisis.
Since 2018, when the Supreme Court cracked open the door to state-by-state legalization of mobile sports betting, we’ve seen a gold rush in gambling. Operators are now pulling in more than $70B annually (ads are everywhere, the apps are engineered for nonstop engagement, and the harm is rising fast). In NJ, one of the first states to legalize, 6% of adults are already experiencing moderate to severe gambling-related issues (double the national average).
We connect the dots between gambling and familiar fintech business models: the same behavioral nudges, same VIP economics, the same revenue dependence on a vulnerable sliver of power users. If overdraft fees and gamified trading feel predatory, this is that (but on steroids).
We unpack:
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Why sports betting apps now hold three times more per wager than old-school sportsbooks
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How engagement tactics mimic (and often outstrip) the most addictive elements of gamified finance
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Why we’re watching investing and gambling blur into one screen (and one behavior)
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What proactive financial intervention might look like, and why most help comes too late
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How banks and fintechs can step up (detecting risk early, training advisors, and supporting families in recovery)
We close with this big question: when gambling is mobile, funded from a checking account, and styled like Robinhood … can the financial industry really say it’s not their problem?
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Follow Alex (DeMarco):
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexdemarco/
MoneyStack: https://www.linkedin.com/company/moneystack/
Follow Alex (Johnson):
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos