The Atlantic gave Mormon reporter $10K to bet on NFL, and he became

The Atlantic gave Mormon reporter $10K to bet on NFL, and he became

A religious Mormon journalist said he became a “degenerate gambler” after his bosses at The Atlantic journal 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 said his bishop reluctantly signed off on the task — which let him wager the full $10,000 on NFL, NBA and school sports activities with losses lined, while splitting any winnings 50-50 with the journal.

McKay Coppins, employees author for The Atlantic, said a $10,000 betting experiment spiraled into what he called 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 past midnight scrolling betting apps in mattress, his face lit by flashing promos as his spouse slept beside him.

He juggled a number of games directly — one on his cellphone, 4 on TV — and listened to playing podcasts in the bathe as the experiment consumed his daily routine.

“The dopamine system in my brain had been hijacked,” Coppins wrote.

“I needed money on the game to care about it.”

Coppins said apps like DraftKings stored him hooked as he scrolled late into the evening inserting bets. Bloomberg by way of Getty Images

The scribe reported that he shortly expanded past a single platform, beginning with DraftKings before downloading a number of sportsbook apps as his betting intensified.

Following recommendation to store for better odds, he added FanDuel and ESPN Bet to his rotation, bouncing between them to monitor traces and place wagers — often scrolling by all three late into the evening as notifications and promotions stored pulling him again in.

“It was now common for my family to catch me furtively tapping in wagers,” Coppins wrote.

The behavior shortly seeped into his dwelling life. His youngsters started selecting 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 point unfold and a moneyline.

Coppins said he was inserting bets “furtively” on his cellphone as the behavior took over his daily life. McKay Coppins / Facebook

At one point, his son caught him sneaking wagers in the pantry and blurted out: “Dad is hiding again!”

His spouse, Annie, watched the shift in real 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 games left him sleeping in while she dealt with the youngsters alone.

“I can’t wait for your gambling experiment to be over,” she told 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 a part of his investigation into on-line sports activities playing — and he got here out with far less cash and some… pic.twitter.com/xNWSqTzvgi— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) April 7, 2026

Coppins reported that he fired off a collection of wagers before kickoff, including a bet that the Eagles would beat the Cowboys by more than a landing, another that quarterback Jalen Hurts would throw for over 200 yards, and a dangerous “same-game parlay” that required each Hurts and working again Saquon Barkley to score touchdowns — a long-shot mixture that would only pay out if every 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 end of the experiment, Coppins had wagered almost $11,000 across more than 100 bets — and was up just $156.

The losses ultimately snowballed into one thing far more severe. In just under two weeks, Coppins blew by more than $2,500 as he chased unhealthy bets with greater wagers, abandoning his earlier self-discipline in a frantic bid to get better.

By the end of the season, the experiment had totally unraveled — leaving him down $9,891 and confronting the actuality that what started as a managed task had spiraled right into a expensive obsession.

After months of chasing losses and burning almost $10,000, Coppins hit a breaking point — trying to find a Virginia self-exclusion forum utilized by downside gamblers to ban themselves from betting.

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