The Safe Bet Show is back and this time in the hot seat is Daniel Trolaro, Co-Managing Director of Education and Training Services at Integrity Compliance 360 (IC360), who detailed his journey from prison to gambling harm prevention educator.

Trolaro spoke about how witnessing and losing friends during the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers led to him using gambling as a coping mechanism. 

“That was a day my life changed,” explained Trolaro.

 “The innocence of the last 25 years, to some degree, was gone when you go through something like that. I started using gambling, which I had grown up around, as an escape. 

“I just started playing blackjack on my laptop before it was even legalised in the state of New Jersey as a way to escape. And for me, blackjack and cards made me feel better. It wasn’t about the money and how much I won or lost. My relationship with gambling was different than as a form of entertainment, it was a coping mechanism.”

Eventually, while working as a financial advisor, Trolaro embezzled funds from clients to fund his habit and eventually spent four and a half years in prison. Upon his release, he began his career as a gambling harm prevention educator with the New Jersey Council’s division of 800-Gambler, the national problem gambling helpline in the US.

Educating young athletes

After a number of years working at 800-gambler, Trolaro moved to work for EPIC Global Solutions before switching to his current role at IC360 in May of this year.

In both of these roles, Trolaro has spent a significant amount of time educating student-athletes throughout the NCAA about responsible gambling.

On his latest role with IC360, he said: “We’re starting to see we have the ability now, besides delivering hard-hitting lived experience education, to have ongoing monitoring digital education solutions checking to make sure that student-athletes are not betting or trying to play daily fantasy sports.

“So making sure that we’re keeping our student-athletes, coaches and staff safe and keeping the integrity of sports safe, which leads to a safer, sustainable gambling industry. 

“The work that we’ll be doing is redesigning their entire education platform and system and bringing it to the next level so that the student-athletes, coaches, and staff can understand [not only] their relationship with gambling, but also why they’re in harm’s way, why there may also be an integrity threat or concern and how to keep themselves safe if they are approached for inside information or if someone does send them threatening messages.”

Responsible gambling vs safer gambling

Elsewhere in the episode, the duo examined the wider state of the US industry following the introduction of online sports betting to the country in 2018 following the repeal of PASPA.

Trolaro explained that he is “not a huge fan” of the term responsible gambling and believes that safer gambling may be a more effective term.

He said: “The phrase responsible gambling implies that you’re being irresponsible if you’re not [gambling responsibly], whereas safer gambling means that you’re already trying to be safe, but let’s try to make you just a little safer.”

Furthermore, he also stressed the need for greater education on gambling throughout all stages of the US school system.

“I’m a big believer in prevention and prevention starts with education and knowledge so that we can equip, empower and educate future generations to understand that gambling can be harmful for a small part of the population,” said Trolaro.

“We don’t want to see people turning it into something other than what it was intended for which was as a form of entertainment.”