DraftKings Wants High Schools to Teach Gambling: What’s at Stake

Sandro Brasher

Uncategorized

March 28, 2026

1 Views

DraftKings, the Boston-based sports betting giant that reported $3.67 billion in revenue for 2023, has proposed that American high schools teach students about gambling, framing the idea as a responsible gaming measure. The suggestion has ignited a fierce debate among educators, addiction specialists, and consumer advocates who question whether a for-profit gambling company should shape how teenagers learn about wagering. With sports betting now legal in 38 US states and Washington D.C. as of 2024, the stakes of that question have never been higher.

DraftKings Proposes Gambling Curriculum for US High Schools

What DraftKings Actually Said

DraftKings put forward the idea of integrating gambling literacy into high school education as part of a broader responsible gaming conversation. The company positioned the proposal as a proactive effort to equip young people with the knowledge to make informed decisions before they reach legal betting age, which is 21 in most US states. Responsible gaming, in DraftKings’ framing, means teaching students about odds, probability, and the risks of problem gambling before they ever place a bet.

The proposal did not come with a formal curriculum document or a named academic partner, which critics immediately flagged as a red flag. Advocacy groups noted that industry-funded education programs have a documented history of softening negative perceptions of gambling rather than genuinely discouraging harmful behavior. The National Council on Problem Gambling estimates that approximately 1% of the US adult population, roughly 3 million people, meets the criteria for severe gambling disorder in any given year [1].

The core tension is this: a company that profits when people gamble more is volunteering to teach teenagers what gambling is. That structural conflict of interest sits at the center of every objection raised by health professionals and education policy experts.

The Responsible Gaming Argument DraftKings Is Making

DraftKings and its supporters argue that gambling education in schools mirrors how financial literacy programs teach students about credit card debt or investment risk. The logic holds that informed consumers make better decisions, and that silence around gambling leaves teenagers more vulnerable when they encounter it as adults. DraftKings spent $933 million on sales and marketing in 2023 alone, a figure that underscores how aggressively the company pursues new customers [2].

Proponents of the idea point to the UK, where the Gambling Commission has supported school-based awareness programs developed in partnership with charities rather than operators. The distinction matters: in the UK model, independent organizations deliver the content, not the betting companies themselves. No equivalent independent framework exists in the United States, which makes DraftKings’ proposal structurally different from the international precedents it implicitly invokes.

The Real-World Impact on Teenagers and Families in 2024

Youth Gambling Is Already a Growing Problem

The timing of DraftKings’ proposal coincides with a documented surge in youth gambling activity following the 2018 Supreme Court ruling in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, which opened the door to state-by-state sports betting legalization. A 2023 study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that sports betting advertising exposure among people aged 18 to 24 increased by 231% between 2021 and 2022 [1]. Teenagers, who consume the same media as young adults, absorb much of that advertising volume.

The American Psychiatric Association classifies gambling disorder as a behavioral addiction with neurological similarities to substance use disorders. Research from the Journal of Gambling Studies indicates that adolescents who begin gambling before age 18 are three to four times more likely to develop a gambling problem as adults compared to those who start later. Introducing gambling concepts into a school setting, even under a “responsible” banner, risks accelerating that early exposure.

Dr. Timothy Fong, co-director of the UCLA Gambling Studies Program, has publicly stated that the most effective prevention strategy for youth gambling is delaying the age of first exposure, not educating around it. His position directly contradicts the premise of DraftKings’ proposal and represents the mainstream view among addiction medicine specialists.

Who Bears the Cost When This Goes Wrong

Problem gambling costs the United States an estimated $7 billion annually in lost productivity, criminal justice expenses, and treatment costs, according to the National Council on Problem Gambling [1]. Those costs fall disproportionately on lower-income households, which also happen to be the demographic most heavily targeted by gambling advertising in the post-legalization era. Schools in underfunded districts, where financial literacy resources are already scarce, would be the most likely adopters of a free, industry-provided curriculum.

Parents and school boards in states like New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, where mobile sports betting has been legal for several years, have already begun raising concerns about gambling advertising appearing on platforms their children use daily. A DraftKings-influenced classroom curriculum would represent a significant escalation of that industry presence in minors’ lives.

The $150 Billion US Gambling Market Driving This Push

The American Gaming Association projects the total US gambling market, including casinos, lotteries, and online platforms, will exceed $150 billion in gross gaming revenue by 2025 [3]. Sports betting alone generated $10.9 billion in 2023, a 74% increase over 2022 figures. DraftKings captured approximately 32% of the US online sports betting market in Q4 2023, making it the single largest operator by handle in most states where it operates.

Customer acquisition costs in the sports betting industry are extraordinarily high. DraftKings spent an average of $300 to $400 to acquire each new depositing customer in 2022, according to company filings. Building brand familiarity among teenagers who will reach legal betting age within a few years represents a logical, if ethically fraught, long-term strategy. The economics of the proposal are inseparable from the ethics of it.

Competitor FanDuel, owned by Flutter Entertainment and holding roughly 40% US market share, has not made a comparable proposal. BetMGM and Caesars Sportsbook have also stayed silent on the high school education idea, leaving DraftKings as the sole major operator publicly advocating for classroom gambling content. That isolation either signals genuine corporate conviction or a trial balloon testing public reaction before wider industry adoption.

The broader regulatory environment is also shifting. The Federal Trade Commission began scrutinizing gambling advertising practices targeting young adults in 2023, and several state legislatures, including those in Massachusetts and Ohio, introduced bills in 2024 to restrict sports betting ads during hours when minors are likely watching television [3].

Why Crypto and Blockchain Finance Readers Should Pay Attention

The DraftKings proposal carries direct relevance for the crypto and blockchain finance sector because the regulatory and ethical arguments being made about gambling education are nearly identical to debates already playing out around crypto literacy in schools. Several blockchain advocacy organizations, including the Blockchain Association and the Crypto Council for Innovation, have lobbied for cryptocurrency education in high school financial literacy curricula since 2021. Critics of those efforts have raised the same conflict-of-interest concerns now being directed at DraftKings: that industry-funded education serves marketing goals as much as student welfare.

Crypto gambling, specifically blockchain-based betting platforms and prediction markets, sits at the direct intersection of both industries. Platforms like Polymarket processed over $1 billion in prediction market volume in 2024, attracting users who are often young, digitally native, and already comfortable with crypto wallets. If gambling education enters high schools under DraftKings’ framing, it will inevitably touch on digital payment methods, including crypto, which operators increasingly accept. How that content is shaped, and by whom, will matter enormously for how the next generation of users understands both gambling risk and digital asset risk.

Key Takeaways

• DraftKings, which reported $3.67 billion in revenue in 2023, has proposed integrating gambling education into US high school curricula under a responsible gaming framework.
• Sports betting is now legal in 38 US states and Washington D.C. as of 2024, up from just 1 state in 2018, creating the market pressure behind this proposal.
• The National Council on Problem Gambling estimates gambling disorder affects approximately 3 million US adults annually, with adolescent exposure being a primary risk factor [1].
• A 2023 JAMA Internal Medicine study found sports betting ad exposure among 18-to-24-year-olds increased 231% between 2021 and 2022, with teenagers absorbing significant portions of that volume [1].
• DraftKings spent $933 million on sales and marketing in 2023, providing financial context for why building early brand familiarity carries strategic value [2].
• No major competitor, including FanDuel (40% US market share) or BetMGM, has endorsed or replicated DraftKings’ high school curriculum proposal as of mid-2024.
• Crypto gambling platforms like Polymarket surpassed $1 billion in prediction market volume in 2024, making the overlap between digital finance literacy and gambling education increasingly relevant.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Bottom Line

DraftKings’ high school gambling proposal is not simply a corporate social responsibility gesture. It is a strategic move by a $3.67 billion revenue company operating in a rapidly expanding market to shape how the next generation of potential customers thinks about betting. The responsible gaming framing is genuine in the sense that DraftKings does operate harm-reduction programs, but it cannot fully neutralize the structural conflict of interest between a for-profit operator and the students it proposes to educate.

The debate this proposal has triggered will likely accelerate regulatory scrutiny of gambling advertising and education practices across multiple states in 2024 and 2025. For the crypto and blockchain finance sector, the conversation offers a direct mirror: any industry seeking to embed its concepts into school curricula faces the same legitimacy test. The question is not whether financial literacy matters. It is whether the entity writing the lesson plan can be trusted to put students’ interests ahead of its own.

The classroom is the last place where a betting company’s marketing interests and a teenager’s wellbeing should compete for the same square footage.

Sources

1. Casino.org – Primary reporting on DraftKings’ high school gambling education proposal and youth gambling statistics
2. Casino.org – DraftKings 2023 revenue figures, marketing spend data, and market share analysis
3. Casino.org – American Gaming Association market projections, state legalization data, and regulatory developments in 2024