A reporter behaved like a problem gambler; DraftKings promoted him to VIP

ProPublica reporter Jake Pearson opened a DraftKings account under his own name, disclosed that he was a journalist and—under the guidance of addiction researchers, recovering gamblers and professional bettors—spent ten weeks imitating recognisable patterns of compulsive gambling. After losing almost $1,800 while chasing basketball losses in one night, he received an invitation to audition for DraftKings’ VIP programme the following day. He was formally admitted after three weeks and $5,800 in deposits.

The app did display responsible-gambling warnings. But those interventions were easy to dismiss and were repeatedly followed by promotions encouraging more action. On one day, after Pearson had approached $4,500 in losses over 24 hours and visited the responsible-gaming centre, DraftKings sent four promotional alerts. A warning about taking a break after a loss was followed hours later by an unlimited offer boosting returns on rapid baseball microbets—the same slot-machine-like format experts had identified as especially risky.

DraftKings’ loyalty design pulled in the other direction. Long-odds wagers accumulated status credits faster, while a personal VIP concierge could supply bonus bets or deposit matches. By contrast, when Pearson repeated similar behaviour for a week on FanDuel, that service issued repeated reality checks and did not invite him into its VIP programme. This does not establish population-wide performance: it is one deliberately constructed account, and DraftKings says it monitors risky behaviour and sometimes closes accounts, though it would not disclose how often.

The experiment matters because the conflict is structural. The customers most valuable to a sportsbook can also be those losing frequently enough to display signs of harm. Since the US Supreme Court opened the door to state legalisation in 2018, Americans have wagered more than $600bn on sports; Siena’s 2026 survey found 27% of US adults held an online-sportsbook account. Voluntary prompts cannot carry the burden if the product’s ranking, rewards and notifications continue to optimise for more betting at precisely the moment a user loses control.