A $10,000 slot win ruined his life

Sam placed his first bet at twelve years old. In his twenties he won ten thousand dollars on a slot machine, and that win cost him the next decade.

Publicly he looked successful. Privately he was betting on anything that produced a hit: slots, offshore crypto casinos, blackjack.

We got into the design of slot machines, why sports betting apps are engineered the way they are, and the fact that roughly ninety-eight per cent of insurance does not cover gambling treatment.