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:

Why sports betting apps now hold three times more per wager than old-school sportsbooks

How engagement tactics mimic (and often outstrip) the most addictive elements of gamified finance

Why we’re watching investing and gambling blur into one screen (and one behavior)

What proactive financial intervention might look like, and why most help comes too late

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

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson

X: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson