Personal finance host Dave Ramsey singled out two companies by name during a recent segment on his nationally syndicated radio show.
He responded to a father whose college-age son placed bets on sportsbooks while building an investment portfolio.
Ramsey identified Flutter Entertainment, the parent company of FanDuel, and DraftKings as the two biggest online sportsbook operators in America. He called FanDuel “a portal to hell” and said online sports gambling was destroying young men faster than anything he had witnessed.
The father also suggested redirecting his son’s appetite for risk toward short-term stock trading, but Ramsey rejected that alternative as well.
Households that bet online had 41% less money in their bank accounts than those that did not, according to data from the Bank of America Institute.
Also Read: Sports betting reality bites for Gen Z, Millennials
Gen Z leads the surge into online sportsbook apps
A Betterment Retail Investor Survey of 1,000 investors showed that more than half of Gen Z investors (52%) redirected money set aside for investing into sports betting in the past year. Of that survey group, 14% said they made the switch from investment accounts to sportsbook deposits more than once per month.
Gen Z and Millennials accounted for 88% of all online betting activity during July 2026. First-time users in June and July 2026 surged to triple the January 2026 level, and Gen Z alone accounted for 48% of all bettors, the Bank of America Institute found.
Bettors across every generation recovered less than 75 cents for every dollar sent to online betting platforms each month during 2026. Two in five Gen Z adults view sports betting as a legitimate form of investment, double the rate among the general population.
Even Gen Z, which performed best among all age groups, recovered just over 80 cents on the dollar, still well short of breaking even. Overall credit delinquencies among sports bettors under 40 jumped roughly 10 percentage points following legalization, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of New York study.
FanDuel and DraftKings pour bettors’ losses into marketing
Ramsey offered a blunt summary of how sportsbook operators fund their advertising budgets during the segment with the concerned father who called in.
He told the caller that bettors simply do not win, which is why these companies can afford to purchase so many television and digital ads.
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DraftKings posted a 4.6% decline in second-quarter revenue to $1.44 billion and a $67.6 million net loss, its Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Form 10-Q filing showed. The sport’s net revenue margin shrank from 8.7% to 6.8% as sales and marketing spending climbed to $322.5 million from $233.2 million that quarter.
Flutter Entertainment, FanDuel’s parent company, posted a 15% decline in United States sportsbook revenue and a 70% drop in U.S. adjusted EBITDA to $119 million, its Q2 2026 Form 8-K showed.
FanDuel plans an additional second-half investment to strengthen its proposition and accelerate sportsbook momentum, reducing adjusted EBITDA by approximately $270 million.
DraftKings shares sat near $19.85, down 42.4% on the year, while Flutter traded at $77.80, off 63.82% since January 2026.
Dave Ramsey criticizes sportsbook advertising as DraftKings and FanDuel face declining revenue, rising marketing costs, and mounting pressure on profitability.Hispanolistic / Getty Images
Every dollar lost to a sportsbook forfeits decades of compound growth
Money that flows into a sportsbook can never earn dividends, grow through compound interest, or accumulate in a tax-advantaged retirement account. Gambling winnings do not count toward the earnings history that the Social Security Administration uses to calculate retirement benefits, Newsweek reported.
A worker earning $100,000 in traditional salary could increase monthly Social Security benefits by roughly $36 to $76, depending on the earnings record. That same amount won through sports betting would add nothing to the benefit calculation, leaving a retirement gap that widens annually.
Michael Ryan, founder of MichaelRyanMoney.com, in an interview with Newsweek described the compounding cost of those redirected dollars.
<strong>What worries me is what the betting money replaced. If it was money that would have gone into a Roth IRA, 401(k), brokerage account, or even an emergency fund, the loss isn’t just today’s bet. It’s potentially 30 or 40 years of compounding that never happens</strong>.
Ryan’s concern falls most squarely on Gen Z, the generation with the longest compounding horizon and the highest share of online betting activity.
Warn young sportsbook bettors now
Among Millennials in the Betterment survey, 31% shifted money into sportsbook accounts, compared with 10% of Generation X and 4% of baby boomers.
Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor at the University of Tennessee at Martin, told Newsweek that academic research is already connecting expanded online betting with lower investment and greater debt among younger adults.
Ramsey made the same connection on his show in more direct terms. He said an unprecedented number of people are coming into Ramsey Solutions’ financial counseling offices after their lives have been destroyed by sportsbook apps.
He described clients who have lost their marriages and gone bankrupt, while the broader culture continues to treat sports betting as harmless entertainment.
He compared online sports gambling’s pull to cocaine and fentanyl, warning the caller that a college student placing bets is creating habit patterns and neural pathways in his brain that could take a decade to undo.
His message to the father and every parent listening was unequivocal: “It’s not conducive to building wealth. It’s not conducive to building a high-quality life.”
Related: Edward Jones warns that Gen Z faces a serious savings gap