Brian Pempus has spent over 15 years covering the gambling industry from the inside, working with major publications including Forbes and Card Player Magazine. Now he’s launched GamblingHarm.org, a dedicated platform focused on consumer protection and addiction awareness in the rapidly expanding US market.

The Pennsylvania native’s first brush with gambling’s darker side came during his university days at Penn State, when the online poker boom was in full swing. He watched a friend win $40,000 in a late-night Full Tilt Poker tournament, only to discover the next morning that the entire balance had been lost in the hours that followed.

“I was there when he won the money, but I wasn’t there when he lost it all,” Pempus recalls.

That experience planted the seed, though it would be years before he’d connect those dots professionally.

From Vegas Reporter to Industry Insider

Pempus cut his teeth as a reporter for Card Player Magazine in Las Vegas, where he gained front-row access to the highs and lows of professional gambling. His career path took him through Better Collective, The Game Day, and Forbes, giving him an unusual breadth of perspective across the industry.

“I saw the good, the bad, and the ugly of gambling,” he says. “Readers wanted to see the gut-wrenching moments. Not just the big wins, but the losses and the drama. The agony of defeat is very much connected to problem gambling.”

That inside view eventually prompted a shift in his approach. The steady stream of addiction stories and questionable VIP programme practices convinced him the industry needed scrutiny from a different angle.

Responsible Gaming or Corporate Cover?

When asked whether operators genuinely prioritise problem gambling or simply use it for public relations, Pempus doesn’t pull punches.

“These companies are full of well-intentioned people who don’t mean any harm,” he acknowledges. “But structurally, they’re incentivised not to address it properly.”

The fundamental issue, he argues, is that gambling operators derive the bulk of their revenue from a minority of heavy users. “You really can’t help but treat responsible gambling as more of a PR thing because the business model relies on power users,” Pempus explains. “It’s a hard business model to square with responsible gaming.”

Recent revelations have underscored his point. Danny Funt’s book “Everybody Loses” featured a former PointsBet employee who claimed she essentially was the company’s entire Responsible Gambling department, a detail that’s raised serious questions about the gap between operator messaging and operational reality.

Chasing Losses: The Common Thread

Pempus has zeroed in on loss-chasing as a critical warning sign, though he’s careful to distinguish between common behaviour and outright addiction. Dr Timothy Fong from UCLA’s Gambling Studies Programme identifies persistent loss-chasing, combined with actions that violate one’s moral code like borrowing money you can’t afford, as key addiction markers.

Multiple surveys suggest roughly half of online sports bettors chase their losses. Pempus stresses this doesn’t automatically indicate addiction. “It’s a very natural human tendency to want to recoup money you’ve lost gambling,” he notes. “It doesn’t mean you have a problem yet, but it’s definitely something to be aware of.”

Sports betting is now legal in over 30 US states, and operators are spending heavily on customer acquisition. Pempus’s timing seems particularly relevant. His years working within the industry give him credibility that pure advocacy organisations might lack, whilst his new independence allows him to ask uncomfortable questions without commercial constraints.

Whether GamblingHarm.org can meaningfully influence an industry worth billions remains to be seen. But Pempus is bringing an informed voice to a conversation that’s becoming increasingly urgent as legal betting spreads across America.