Dave Ramsey Warns: DraftKings and FanDuel Are ‘Destroying a Generation of Young Men’

“It is the most addictive freaking thing I've ever seen,” Ramsey said. “The number of people coming into our financial counselors around America, sitting down with Ramsey counselors, that their entire lives have been destroyed by this bull crap is unbelievable. It's the fastest growing addiction in America – faster than cocaine, faster than drugs of any kind, faster even than porn, and porn is a really huge problem as well.”

DraftKings, FanDuel, and similar companies surged after the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association that allowed states to legalize and regulate sports gambling. Professional sports leagues such as the NFL and NBA that once opposed legalized gambling now embrace it as a lucrative partners and advertiser. Ads for such companies now flood television broadcasts.

Ramsey offered the remarks after fielding a call from a father whose 21-year-old college son regularly participates in online sports gambling. The dad said the son’s friends do, too.

Online sports gambling is destroying a generation of young men. pic.twitter.com/uRlL6UlWWA

— Dave Ramsey (@DaveRamsey) January 6, 2026

“The fastest growing addiction that is destroying young men in their 20s in America – faster than anything I've ever seen in 30 years of doing this – is online sports gambling,” Ramsey said. “FanDuel is a portal to hell. DraftKings ain't king of nothing except their own pocketbook, and they're screwing an entire generation of young men – because you don't win. That's why they can afford to buy ads on every stinking [program] – I mean, they're back to back to back to back to back ads. Every time you turn on a sporting event, all I see is their crap.

“They're spending billions of dollars. You know where they're getting that? It’s out of your kid's freaking pocket, because they're screwing an entire generation. This is evil stuff right here.”

Ramsey compared the addictive nature of online sports gambling to using cocaine or fentanyl. A college student gambling on sports is “creating habit patterns, neural pathways in his brain that it may take him a decade to get out.” A post on his X/Twitter account read, “Online sports gambling is destroying a generation of young men.”

“I'm seeing [people] lose marriages. I'm seeing them lose jobs. I'm seeing them bankrupted. … We're seeing just sad, sad, sad stories, and nobody's talking about it – everybody's walking around grinning like betting on football is a wonderful thing. It’s not. … You lose more than you win, but you tell [friends] only about the times you won.

“They're making billions of dollars at it, and at the cost of an entire generation being screwed over. … This is evil, straight up evil. It's greed, and it's out of control.”

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Professors Sound Alarm on Sports Gambling Among Young Men: ‘A Casino in Their Pocket’

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Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel. 

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