GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) — March Madness is getting ready to start for the first time in two years, which is good news for sports fans… but not those suffering from gambling problems.
Rose Blozinski is the executive director of the Wisconsin Council on Problem Gambling. She says problem and compulsive gamblers, many of whom have been betting on games all season, tend to have a difficult time managing around March Madness.
“Especially if they’ve had a losing season, it’s crunch time,” Blozinski said. “They’re going to bet everything they can. It can become very dangerous for someone who has a gambling problem.”
The 2020 NCAA Tournament was canceled last year–the first major cancellation of the COVID-19 pandemic. Plenty of other sports followed, and along with the closure of many casinos, many problem gamblers suddenly found their habit largely out of reach.
“We thought that with people not being able to gamble, we wouldn’t get more calls,” Blozinski told WTAQ. “But in June that started to wake up and we actually ended up having over 16,000 contacts in 2020.”
That’s higher than the 12,000 contacts they had in 2019.
If you or someone you know is struggling with gambling problems, you can contact the council at wi-problemgamblers.org or call 1-800-GAMBLE-5.
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