What starts as a neighborhood poker game at age 12 can quietly grow into something that consumes every waking hour. In this episode, Barry Shore sits down with Sam DeMello — tech entrepreneur, gambling addiction survivor, and founder of Evive — for an honest, eye-opening conversation about one of the fastest-growing public health crises in America.

Sam traces his relationship with gambling from teenage poker nights in Oakland to casino runs four or five nights a week during college at UC Santa Barbara, and eventually to online sports betting at 2 a.m. on Ugandan women's basketball. He explains how gambling was never just about money — it was a solution to loneliness, a language for making friends, and a way to feel like he belonged. That double life, appearing successful on the outside while silently drowning on the inside, is what he calls the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde experience of addiction.

Barry and Sam explore why gambling addiction remains the most stigmatized and least-supported form of addiction, why the digitization of gambling has removed every safeguard that once slowed problem gambling down, and why young men are being hit hardest. Sam also references Dr. Tim Fong of the UCLA Gambling Studies Program, who describes gambling disorder not merely as a brain disease but as an intense condition of loneliness.

This episode is essential listening for anyone who loves someone affected by problem gambling — or suspects they might be affected themselves.

Sam DeMello is a tech entrepreneur, gambling addiction advocate, and founder of Evive, a recovery support program designed to help people impacted by gambling disorder.