The Atlantic gave Mormon reporter $10K to bet on – Business News
A religious Mormon journalist mentioned he became a “degenerate gambler” after his bosses at The Atlantic magazine gave him $10,000 to wager on sports activities.
McKay Coppins, a politics reporter for the intellectual magazine, was requested by his editors to put together a first-person account on the pitfalls of sports activities betting.
He mentioned his bishop reluctantly signed off on the project — which let him wager the total $10,000 on NFL, NBA and faculty sports activities with losses lined, whereas splitting any winnings 50-50 with the magazine.
McKay Coppins, employees author for The Atlantic, mentioned a $10,000 betting experiment spiraled into what he referred to as a “degenerate gambler” section. Getty Images
“I promised the bishop that I would steer clear of slippery slopes,” wrote Coppins, a married suburban dad of 4.
“’This will really just be a journalistic exercise,’ I assured him.”
Within weeks, the self-described non-gambler was staying up previous midnight scrolling betting apps in mattress, his face lit by flashing promos as his spouse slept beside him.
He juggled a number of video games directly — one on his cellphone, 4 on TV — and listened to playing podcasts within the bathe because the experiment consumed his each day routine.
“The dopamine system in my brain had been hijacked,” Coppins wrote.
“I needed money on the game to care about it.”
Coppins mentioned apps like DraftKings saved him hooked as he scrolled late into the night time inserting bets. Bloomberg by way of Getty Images
The scribe reported that he rapidly expanded past a single platform, beginning with DraftKings earlier than downloading a number of sportsbook apps as his betting intensified.
Following advice to store for higher odds, he added FanDuel and ESPN Bet to his rotation, bouncing between them to observe traces and place wagers — usually scrolling by means of all three late into the night time as notifications and promotions saved pulling him back in.
“It was now common for my family to catch me furtively tapping in wagers,” Coppins wrote.
The behavior rapidly seeped into his home life. His children started choosing up betting jargon, together with his 10-year-old asking, “Who are we betting on?” and his 7-year-old daughter studying the distinction between a level unfold and a moneyline.
Coppins mentioned he was inserting bets “furtively” on his cellphone because the behavior took over his each day life. McKay Coppins / Facebook
At one level, his son caught him sneaking wagers within the pantry and blurted out: “Dad is hiding again!”
His spouse, Annie, watched the shift in actual time — from a novelty to one thing darker.
She accused him of being addicted after recognizing him checking bets in church and grew annoyed as late-night video games left him sleeping in whereas she dealt with the youngsters alone.
“I can’t wait for your gambling experiment to be over,” she advised him.
But even Annie grew exhilarated when her partner started wagering bets that netted him a revenue.
“It only took a few weeks before I was hiding in the kitchen pantry to put my bets in, so my kids didn’t see how much I was gambling”: @TheAtlantic gave @mckaycoppins $10,000 as half of his investigation into online sports activities playing — and he got here out with far much less money and a few… pic.twitter.com/xNWSqTzvgi— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) April 7, 2026
Coppins reported that he fired off a collection of wagers earlier than kickoff, together with a bet that the Eagles would beat the Cowboys by more than a landing, one other that quarterback Jalen Hurts would throw for over 200 yards, and a dangerous “same-game parlay” that required each Hurts and operating back Saquon Barkley to rating touchdowns — a long-shot mixture that might solely pay out if each leg hit.
After informing his spouse that he gained $20, she “high-fived” him and “immediately began to fantasize about how we would spend my winnings for the season.”
“Could we replace our dying KitchenAid mixer? Remodel the kitchen pantry?” Coppins wrote.
“Like so many wives before her, she had looked upon my foray into sports gambling with a bemused air of exasperation; now she was seeing a potential upside.”
Coppins positioned a dangerous same-game parlay tied to Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley touchdowns. for the NY POST
By the top of the experiment, Coppins had wagered practically $11,000 throughout more than 100 bets — and was up simply $156.
The losses ultimately snowballed into one thing far more critical. In slightly below two weeks, Coppins blew by means of more than $2,500 as he chased dangerous bets with greater wagers, abandoning his earlier self-discipline in a frantic bid to get well.
By the top of the season, the experiment had totally unraveled — leaving him down $9,891 and confronting the truth that what started as a managed project had spiraled into a pricey obsession.
After months of chasing losses and burning practically $10,000, Coppins hit a breaking level — trying to find a Virginia self-exclusion discussion board utilized by downside gamblers to ban themselves from betting.
