
Are Gambling Apps Too Powerful? Inside the Crackdown
Clip: Season 2026 | 2m 27sVideo has Closed Captions
New limits push back on live bets and the algorithms powering gambling apps.
This clip imagines a scenario that mirrors real debates around the Safer Bet Act, showing efforts to curb live wagers and stop gambling apps from using algorithms to track or target players. The debate heats up fast: these rules add real protection, but critics argue they’re unrealistic and limit innovation. Experts weigh guardrails, enforcement, and how self exclusion could work.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Funding for this program was provided in part by grants from The Rosalind P. Walter Foundation and by a grant from Anne Ray Foundation and by contributions from viewers like you. Thank you. Location furnished by The New York Historical.

Are Gambling Apps Too Powerful? Inside the Crackdown
Clip: Season 2026 | 2m 27sVideo has Closed Captions
This clip imagines a scenario that mirrors real debates around the Safer Bet Act, showing efforts to curb live wagers and stop gambling apps from using algorithms to track or target players. The debate heats up fast: these rules add real protection, but critics argue they’re unrealistic and limit innovation. Experts weigh guardrails, enforcement, and how self exclusion could work.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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National Problem Gambling Helpline
If you or someone you know is struggling with a gambling problem, help is available. The National Council on Problem Gambling provides a range of resources.Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship- So can you tell us what would the Safer Bet Act do to reign in gambling?
- The Safer Bet Act would prohibit the bets during the actual play of the game.
It would prohibit tracking, using algorithms to track the users or betters.
Jeremy seems to be turning a corner in his life until he gets that ping on the phone saying, Jeremy, we miss you.
- Yeah, - Right.
You haven't been betting, - Mr.
Levy.
You, you didn't seem super excited when you heard these betting restrictions.
In the Safer Bet Act Well the Safer Bet Act is never gonna be able to pass because it is based in a world of naivety.
And here in Middlevania, we live in the real world.
So in the real world, things like banning AI algorithms is impossible.
How are you going to ban me from using algorithms at home?
I think that the thing that you are demonizing is information and information can never be banned.
My job is to provide an extraordinary experience for my customers and to provide amazing information that is my job, and I'm gonna do that to the best of my ability.
One, your job is to make - Money, and algorithms... One more point... one more point please.
More point.
- You wouldn't ban humans that have got more knowledge than other humans from gambling.
So why would you ban AI, which is the ultimate equalizer, which helps me as someone who knows nothing about sports be equal to people who've studied their sports their whole lives, and put the odds in my favor.
We're not banning algorithms, we're banning certain uses of algorithms to exploit people like Jeremy who are vulnerable.
Hold on a sec.
Hold on.
So we, we, we haven't talked about one feature of state regulation that everybody is ignoring.
And the advice I would give to Stephanie and Tiki is have your son self exclude himself from FanFuel.
We don't want to target him if he has a problem, we don't want him participating in our platform.
State laws that this governor signed a bill on and state laws around the country have as one of its features, the ability of an individual to self exclude himself and, and in some cases for family members to initiate - That process.
And that's FanFuel's preference for Jeremy to self exclude himself.
Brother, please.
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The Get-Rich Trap: Inside a Gambling Spiral
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Are Gambling Apps Too Powerful? Inside the Crackdown
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New limits push back on live bets and the algorithms powering gambling apps. (2m 27s)
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A Matter of Life and Death: Preview
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Watch the preview for BREAKING THE DEADLOCK: A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (30s)
A Matter of Life and Death: Episode Open
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Experts, lawmakers, and industry voices collide over the explosive rise of online sports gambling. (1m 5s)
Law vs. Life: The Abortion Debate Gets Personal
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Abortion Across State Lines: A Parent’s Dilemma
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Would you break the law to help your teen’s pregnant friend get an abortion? (3m 51s)
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