Fantasy Football Can Lead To A Gambling Addiction

In the United States, fantasy football's popularity increases with each passing day. Major websites like FanDuel and ESPN offer daily or season-long fantasy leagues. Plenty of these options offer cash payouts for top-performing entrants. Unfortunately, fantasy football comes with a dark side that's also growing. Millions of players play fantasy, and addiction plagues an alarming number of these individuals today.

Gambling In A Completely Legal Form

According to the United States government, fantasy football is legal because it's a game of skill. It's essentially a legal form of gambling unlike slot machines and casino games. Skill is indeed required to succeed here. However, the opportunity of winning large payouts is too enticing for many to ignore. A fantasy site that lists multiple competitions per day based on at least two real-life games is following the law.

Fantasy Football: A Game That Makes Addiction Easy

Fantasy participants either draft a season-long team or draft new teams each day. For most sites, users can create and concurrently run multiple teams. A lot of number-crunching and analysis is required to win matchups or leagues. Such factors give players an adrenaline rush of sorts when they win money. Then again, even losing can drive players to keep trying. Countless individuals consider themselves obsessed.

Where Fantasy Football Addiction Arises

Individual players feel a rush from winning. They feel a rush from crunching the numbers and outsmarting other players. In fantasy football, the entire system is designed to keep players hooked. Data-crunching and player analysis doesn't stop when the season ends. There's always an opportunity to engage in fantasy football around the clock and throughout the year. As fantasy participation leans toward obsession, problems start to arise.

Staving off fantasy football addiction isn't so simple and straightforward. Opportunities to become addicted come about before, during, and after a given match. Plus, addiction comes in many forms here. One player gets addicted to winning matches or winning money, and another player becomes obsessed with creating lineups. Fantasy football addiction is currently a growing problem, and it's only going to get worse.

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