In this episode of Headspace for the Workplace, I sit down with Saul Malek, a speaker, educator, and problem gambling prevention advocate who travels the world delivering practical programs to workplaces, behavioral health organizations, and schools. Saul brings both professional expertise and deep personal credibility: he developed a gambling addiction as a young college student and has channeled that lived experience into a prevention mission that is, as I note in the episode, reaching people at genuine scale.
The framing of this episode matters immediately: sports betting does not wait until the workday ends. It sits in an employee's pocket during meetings, on break, during overnight shifts, and in company vehicles. What presents as distracted phone use, exhaustion, financial stress, irritability, or declining performance may sometimes be connected to a gambling problem that no one in the workplace has thought to ask about. Legal sports wagering in the United States grew from $4.9 billion in 2017 to more than $121 billion in 2023, with 94% of those wagers placed online. Researchers have also documented a 23% increase above expected levels in online searches for gambling-addiction help following the expansion of legal sportsbooks. This is not a fringe concern. It is an escalating, largely invisible workplace wellbeing risk.
Saul is not anti-gambling. He is pro-education. The episode is not about policing employees' private lives. It is about equipping workplaces to name a risk that is systematically absent from most wellbeing strategies, recognize the behavioral patterns that may signal distress, and create a credible path to confidential, specialized support before a crisis forces the issue. The practical checklist, manager scripts, and cultural audit items in this episode give any employer something concrete to do on Monday.
Why This Matters in the Workplace
The Scale of the Problem Is Hiding in Plain Sight
• Legal sports wagering in the United States grew from $4.9 billion in 2017 to more than $121 billion in 2023, with 94% of those wagers placed online
• Online searches for gambling-addiction help rose 23% above expected levels following the expansion of legal sportsbooks, indicating that access and harm are rising in parallel
• Problem gambling is connected to lost productivity, absenteeism, damaged working relationships, financial crimes in the workplace, and employment consequences
• Clinical guidance notes that gambling-related distress may become a dominant suicide-risk factor, and that danger may be especially elevated immediately following a gambling episode
• Researchers draw a direct parallel between the suicide-risk profile of problem gambling and opioid addiction, making this a safety issue, not just a wellness issue
Why It Stays Invisible
Unlike alcohol misuse, problem gambling leaves no visible physical signs. You cannot smell it, see it, or catch it in a drug test. An employee can be placing bets on live international sporting events from their phone during a team meeting and appear, from the outside, simply distracted or tired. The technology has evolved so rapidly that the line between gambling and investing has blurred: gamified trading platforms, prediction markets, and sports betting apps are often indistinguishable in their design and psychological mechanics. Saul's point is precise: if you are not looking for it and not naming it, you will not find it until the harm is severe.
The Workplace Cultural Audit Nobody Is Doing
Most organizations have never examined whether their own culture makes recovery harder for employees with a gambling problem. Office March Madness brackets, Super Bowl pools, casino-night fundraisers, and client entertainment at racetracks or poker events are normalized in many workplaces. None of these need to be eliminated. But a gambling-aware employer creates opt-out opportunities without stigma, uses major sports events as education moments, provides resources proactively rather than reactively, and does not ask employees to buy back in five times at the company casino night. Culture is not neutral. It is either making recovery easier or harder.
In this episode, we’ll answer:
How does problem gambling affect the workplace and employee performance?
What are the signs that an employee has a gambling problem at work?
What should employers do to support employees with gambling problems?
Is problem gambling connected to suicide risk in the workplace?
How can managers raise concern about an employee's gambling without overstepping?
Two Tactical Takeaways from This Episode
Tactical Takeaway #1: Name Gambling in Workplace Mental Health Resources
Saul's first takeaway is deceptively simple and systemically important: name gambling. Most employers talk about alcohol, substance use, stress, depression, and financial wellbeing. Gambling is absent from nearly every list, even though it intersects with all of them. When gambling is not named, employees assume the organization's addiction and mental health resources are not meant for them. The absence of the word is itself a barrier to help-seeking.
The practical actions are concrete and immediately implementable. Add gambling explicitly to mental health, addiction, and financial wellbeing communications. Confirm whether your EAP screens for gambling-related harm and has specialized referral options, because not all EAPs do, and assuming they do is a common and costly mistake. Include gambling in resource audits, wellbeing campaigns, and manager training. Promote confidential help proactively around major sports events, not only after a crisis. And provide resources for affected partners and family members, who may also be employees.
WHY IT WORKS
Shame and stigma are the primary barriers to help-seeking in problem gambling. Saul's clinical insight is direct: people experiencing gambling problems will disclose anxiety or money problems before they disclose gambling, because those feel less stigmatized. When gambling is named by the employer as a recognized, supported concern, it lowers the disclosure barrier and creates a credible pathway to help before the situation becomes a crisis. The National Problem Gambling Helpline (1-800-MY-RESET) is available 24 hours a day. If your employees do not know it exists, it cannot help them.
Tactical Takeaway #2: Train Managers to Notice, Ask, and Connect
Saul's second takeaway defines the manager's role with precision: notice behavioral changes, ask an open and caring question, and connect the employee to qualified help. The manager's job is not to diagnose gambling disorder, investigate private financial activity, or counsel the employee through recovery. It is to respond to observable changes in wellbeing, performance, or safety and to make a referral that might save someone's life.
The behavioral signals Saul identifies are specific and actionable. Constant phone checking, frequent bathroom trips with the phone, anxious tab-switching on a work computer, erratic moods that swing between manic confidence and withdrawal, financial emergency patterns that do not add up, excuses that escalate and contradict, and sudden new possessions alongside sudden new desperation, all of these can be present without anyone naming gambling as the possible cause. Managers who know what to look for can notice earlier. And earlier is when intervention is most effective.
WHY IT WORKS
The suggested manager script from Saul's framework is deliberately non-diagnostic: "I've noticed you seem exhausted and distracted lately, and you've mentioned feeling under significant financial pressure. I'm concerned about you. Is something going on that is affecting your wellbeing or your ability to work safely?" This script describes observable changes, expresses concern, asks an open question, and stays entirely within the manager's lane. When gambling is disclosed, the response is equally precise: "Thank you for telling me. You are not in trouble for asking for help. I'm not a gambling counselor, but I can help connect you with confidential support." And critically, when suicide risk emerges, the response escalates immediately: ask directly, stay with the person, and activate crisis protocols including 988.
about SAUL MALEK
Saul Malek is a speaker, educator, and problem gambling prevention advocate who delivers engaging, evidence-informed programs to workplaces, behavioral health organizations, schools, colleges, and community groups. Through his company, he travels nationally and internationally, sharing his personal story of gambling addiction and recovery alongside practical strategies that help organizations recognize, respond to, and reduce gambling harm.
Saul's work is rooted in lived experience. He developed a gambling addiction as a college student and has channeled that experience into a prevention mission focused on the people and environments most affected by the rapid expansion of legal online sports betting. He is a frequent voice on the intersection of gambling harm and mental health, and speaks directly to the shame, concealment, and escalating suicide risk that can accompany disordered gambling.