George Kamel - The Wealth Killer That's Way Worse Than You Think

Episode Date: July 23, 2025

📙 Order my book, Breaking Free From Broke.   You can lose a lot of money sports betting. But what if I told you it’s doing way more damage than that?Today, we’re pulling back the curtain by looking at the addiction, the manipulation and the millions of lives being quietly wrecked behind the scenes. Fun times. Next Steps: • 🎥 Watch my video Exposing the Shady Company Preying on Low Income Families. • 📈 Are you on track with the Baby Steps? Get a free personalized plan. • 💵 Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app! • 🔈Listen to Breaking Free From Broke on audiobook. • For resources to help with gambling addiction, visit Gambler’s Anonymous. • Explore more from Saul Malek.   Connect With Our Sponsors: • Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe. • Learn more about opening a high-yield savings account with Laurel Road. • Get up to 40% off Cozy Earth with code GEORGE. Explore More From Ramsey Network: 🎙️ The Ramsey Show 🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights 🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 💡 The Rachel Cruze Show 🪑 Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman 📈 EntreLeadership   Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You don't need me to tell you that you can lose a lot of money sports betting. But what if I told you that it's doing way more damage than just that? Because there's a dark side of the sports betting industry that is wrecking a generation. And nobody's talking about it until now. So today, we're pulling back the curtain on companies like Draft Kings and Fanduel by looking at the addiction, the manipulation, and the millions of lives being quietly wrecked behind the scenes. Fun times. Is this fun for you?

And yes, we are talking about millions of lives here. because 58% of 18 to 22-year-olds have already dabbled in sports betting. And that number jumps up to 67% when you look specifically at college students living on campus. And here's where it gets real dark. 10% of young men, aged 18 to 30, are officially considered problem gamblers. And men in their 20s are the most vulnerable group when it comes to gambling and the mental health issues that come with it. Which means this isn't just a money issue. It's a full-blown mental health crisis dressed up in a Travis Kelsey Halloween costume.

Plus, some folks are actually going deeper. into debt for their bets. Specifically, 17% of students use their student loans to fund their gambling. Take that in for a second. That's almost one out of five kids going deeply into debt under the guise of education, only to blow that money on an app that convinced them they could win big. And the worst part of all, these companies know how vulnerable college kids are. They're doing this on purpose. And instead of trying to fix the problem, some are actively making it worse. Take Caesar Sportsbook, for example. They've signed multi-year big money partnerships, with Louisiana State University and Michigan State,

allowing them to easily promote and market their app to students. You'd think Caesar would be too busy selling hot and ready to those kids, but nope, he's on campus handing out betting promos with the school mascot. And that doesn't even include the countless betting ads on college sports broadcasts in addition to NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL games. Plus, you can hardly watch a pregame show anymore without hearing the broadcasters list their best bets for the game. And all of this just makes betting seem normal.

Like it's a part of everyday life. Everybody's doing it and all the cool kids. But let's not forget that we're talking about an industry that is legally required to slap an addiction support number on their advertisements, which is kind of like handing out AA pamphlets with a complimentary shot at frat parties. This is insane. Bottom line, this is a problem that the big dogs of the industry clearly know about, but they've decided to choose profits over people.

Putting them in the same category as tobacco companies and White Castle. They know what they did. Right to jail, right away. Now it's one thing for me to tell you how. dangerous this stuff can be, but it hits different when you hear from someone who's actually lived it. So I invited someone who's been in the trenches to join me in studio. His name is Saul Malik. And while he was in college, Saul spiraled into a full-blown gambling addiction that costs him thousands. Before we get to that conversation, let's talk about another way you could be losing money,

and that's by keeping your savings in a traditional savings account growing at a snail's pace at a brick and mortar bank. Boring. The better option, way more exciting, a high-yield savings account like the one with the online bank Laurel Road, a sponsor of today's video. Their accounts offer competitive top-tier APY. Plus, they never charge monthly maintenance fees, your deposits are FDIC insured, and there's no minimum balance required to open an account. So get started today with a single dollar, if you want, by going to Laurelroad.com slash George or click the link in the description below.

And while you take control of your savings, why not take control of your digital privacy? Your home address, your phone number, even your family members' names and info, it's all out there on data broker's sites. And that makes you and the people you love an easy target for scammers, AI impersonators, even digital harassment. And that's why I use and love Delete Me, another sponsor of today's video. They help protect your info by scrubbing it from these data broker sites, and they send you a custom report every few months that shows exactly what they removed from where and how much time they've saved you. And right now, you can get 20% off any DeleteMe plan, which comes out to as low as $9 a month.

Just go to join DeleteMe.com slash George or click the link in the description below. Back to sports betting and our interview with Saul Malick. Here we go. Saul, welcome. Thanks, George. Good to be here. All right, let's get into your story. How did you get pulled into this world of sports betting?

I actually had a friend, my sophomore year of college, who reached out and said that he had a bookie. He asked if I wanted to do a little sports betting, kind of hyped me up, said I was the king of fantasy baseball, all that. Wow. So I thought, what the heck? Put in $10 on a baseball game September of 2017. And from there, I just got pulled in. And how old were you at that time? I was 19, 19 years old.

Wow. And you were hooked? What happened after the 10 bucks? Did you lose it? Well, no, no. So I won. The first bet was a huge win. It was like 15 to 5 in a baseball game.

So I was convinced, oh, I'm the man. So you made a few hundred bucks on that? No, no, I made like 10 bucks. Oh. But no. I made like, I got on. You said you won big. I was like, okay, we're talking hundreds.

Big is in that the outcome of the game was so lopsided that it convinced me that I was some genius. You're a genius. And I loved the thrill, the action, the rush of it. So I felt this whole. big shot feeling. I wanted to replicate that. So I just, you know, bet on football that weekend, hit a huge underdog. And from there, it was kind of like, this is the start of something great. So can you walk us through the moment you realize that betting had become a legitimate problem for you? I don't know that there was a specific light bulb moment throughout the two years that I was

really hooked on it. It was kind of this off and on knowledge that this wasn't working. But then I would maybe win a bet and it would tell me, oh, maybe I was just unlucky. Maybe this was a losing streak. So I would say throughout the time, it wasn't like a come-to-Jesus moment until when I actually did stop in 2019 when my girlfriend dumped me. And then I just saw all the wreckage of what I'd done. And it was like, okay, either I'm going to die at the hands of this gambling or I'm going to really be serious about getting help. So this is less than two years. It was like getting started, getting addicted, and then quitting.

That first bet was September, 2017. I quit in July of 2019. So 2019, you're like, this has got to end. It's destroyed my relationships and probably damage other parts of my life. What did recovery look like? So my parents had actually introduced me to GA, Gamblers Anonymous, back in 2018, right before my junior year of college. Really, what it looked like was just taking that program to heart and, like, really putting an effort. I also had my parents had me seeing a gambling therapist for a little bit in conjunction with GA.

So it was kind of like a two-pronged sort of method to... dealing with it. Wow. So, Saul, the stats show that two-thirds of college students have dabbled in sports betting and 10% of young man age 18 to 30 have an actual addiction to sports betting. How do you know when it has crossed a line from harmless entertainment and fun to dangerous? That's a good question, because I agree. I don't think everyone is addicted or has a problem necessarily. I think that would I say the three P's, you might have a problem? Are you paying an increasing amount of money? Do you start with $10? Now you can't get a problem. get that same feeling from 10, so now it's 50, now it's 100.

Is it preventing you from living a normal life? Is it preventing you from your other activities? You know, you're gambling on the toilet. You can't even take a dump without, you know, gambling. Something like that. And then the last P I say is persisting. Is it persisting in spite of negative consequences? So I'm down 20 grand, but I still have the desire to gamble.

If you notice any of the three P's, paying, persisting, preventing, could be a sign that you have a problem. So this whole sports betting world has evolved since 2019 in a huge way. I mean, it's overtaken media networks, apps, all of that. So how do these betting platforms intentionally keep people hooked? So there's a big, I don't know if it's a controversy, but there's a big talking point on LinkedIn about these VIP programs on the sports betting apps. And that's the first thing that comes to mind is that, you know, when you're a VIP

or when you've put a lot of money into the app, and then you want to walk away, you see that you have a problem, and then they're sending all these emails of, hey, we miss you, hey, come back, hey, here's a bonus. And a lot of these offers that are just promotional are very enticing, you know,

put in $5 and get $200, even the language behind some of those offers, like no sweat bet, risk-free, and I think they've come under fire for some of that language. And it's become sort of a, socially acceptable thing like hey we all do it it's no big deal everyone's got a sports betting app on their phone have you found that to be true as you've you know traveled the country and and talk to these

people yeah definitely i mean i think especially being 27 in a in a male i think that it's just such a common common talking point i mean i have buddies that i wouldn't say are hooked on it but even even guys that i'm friends with you hear that they'll bet every now and again so i would say yeah it is super acceptable and I'll say this when I talk at some schools and I mention there's probably a group chat out there called the degenerate gamblers or something you see some guys turn and look at each other and they kind of laugh or they kind of nods it's become kind of an inside joke it's like it's me bro yeah exactly to be a degenerate I mean I posted a video of like how I bet on ugandan women's basketball and all the comments weren't just like oh this guy should have gotten

help they were like oh well I bet on you know whatever thumb wrestling in Slovenia it's like a to find the most obscure thing to bet on. Like, I stayed up till 4 a.m. They watch a ping pong match and Luxembourg. Yeah, they're just trying to outdo each other. It's crazy. Wow. You know, with the sports betting apps getting into the pockets of the media and now college campuses,

this is even scarier because they know their target demo is young dudes, which is where the college campuses has the most of those. So, like, I've seen college campuses have been signing marketing and promotional deals with some of these companies. what do you think the long-term effects of this will be? I mean, I just imagine that these young, especially the guys, I mean, it's both, but really mainly the guys. I think that you'll see these guys younger and younger showing up to GA, showing up to treatment. I think you'll see, you know, suicides as a result of gambling,

which I don't know how you entirely prove that because you could say they were depressed, but not attributing it to gambling. Well, we saw that with the investment apps like Robin Hood. Sure. Of one guy saw a negative balance of like a million dollars. I saw that, yeah. And it is life over it.

And so I do think there's some legitimacy to people losing a lot of money in these sports betting apps, risking everything they have or more. Because now you can borrow money to bet, which is even more frightening. Sure. To be going into debt for this, not just losing the money you have. And so it does concern me about the mental health issues, the financial issues, the relational issues. I don't know that you can have a healthy relationship with anyone while having a gambling or sports betting addiction. No, I was going to say, I mean, lying and addiction gambling. gambling addiction, they go hand in hand.

You can't be honest in hiding your gambling at the same time. It just doesn't coexist. So as we wrap, talk to the average person out there who maybe has this app on their phone. They've dabbled with it. They're like, this is harmless. It's a good time when I'm with my friends or whatever. I'm watching the game. Might as well place a little bit.

What do you say to that person? I would caution them to really examine what their motives are behind gambling. Are they escaping something? Are they trying to get rich quick? Are they doing it to get a high, a rush? Because I think there are people that can do it once a weekend, and it really isn't a big deal. Like, I go and have a beer, it's no big deal.

But I would caution them to really examine where it may be heading and to cut it off before it becomes something that's an addiction. Well, Saul, this has been great. I'll make sure to link to your website, as well as Gamblers Anonymous in case anyone out there is struggling with this and is wanting to seek some help. But I appreciate the work you're doing. Thank you. Thank you.

Yes, sir. Thank you. Big thanks to Saul for stopping by and sharing his story. So bottom line here, sports betting sucks. It's nothing more than socially acceptable gambling disguised as entertainment. You're taking the already addictive nature of gambling, combining it with the ease of a mobile app, sprinkling in some peer pressure from your friends, and throwing in odds stacked against you by a professional boogie.

It is hard to find a bigger recipe for disaster. So how should you approach sports betting? Well, my recommendation is a simple one-word strategy called Don't. While it is possible to budget for the stuff and do it responsibly and have a little bit of fun, avoiding it all together is a much safer bet. So the next time you're kicked back watching the big game, do what the pioneers did and just watch the freaking game. No parley's, props, or point spreads required. The only spread I want? Some charcutory. Give me a little blueberry goat cheese, some buff dips, some crispy boys. That's my idea of a good time. I'd be pleased to accept your invitation.

So if you're serious about ditching the cycle of gambling and other traps that screw you over, check out my book, Breaking Free from Broke, where I cover sports. gambling, and so much more. And it's not just a pep talk, it's a step-by-step plan for taking back control, building real wealth, and creating the kind of margin in your life that these betting apps are designed to steal. Also leave a link in the description to the audiobook read by yours truly. And if you think these sports betting companies are bad, wait until you hear about the other multi-billion dollar industry that's targeting struggling families with deceptive marketing and straight-up lies. I broke it down in this video, so keep watching to check it out,

or click the link in the description. That's it for today. Be sure to show your boy some love by video and subscribing to the channel. We'll see you next time.