An average school night can instantly become exciting when there’s the possibility of winning money without spending any. The New England Patriots can’t lose their game against the Pittsburgh Steelers by more than five, West Ham United needs to beat the Tottenham Hotspurs and Everton has to beat Newcastle United. If all that happens, suddenly a student, who will be referred to as Zach, turns $1 of fake money into $25.05 of real money.
According to the Pew Research Center, in 2022, around 19 percent of American adults said they had personally bet money on sports. Many students use Fliff, an app that allows users to spend none of their own money and instead provides Fliff coins and cash (the app’s in-game currency). Players can purchase Fliff coins and cash with real money in the app. And once a player has earned at least $50 in Fliff cash, they can withdraw it as real money. Acting as the bookmaker, Fliff makes money by taking cuts of its players’ wagers by manipulating the odds in their overall favor. While Fliff was founded in 2018, it has only recently gained popularity in the high school.
A second student, who will be referred to as Liam, said Fliff’s leaderboard provides an environment where you can safely compete against your friends. The app includes a leaderboard where you can see how your friends are doing and try to beat them. He said the platform also has given students a place to make recorded bets with actual odds instead of just betting verbally. Although very few students have gotten enough money to withdraw, he said it’s still fun to have bragging rights and friendly competition.
“There’s a bunch of kids in sophomore and junior year that compete against each other and [are] always seeing who has more coins in the game. Usually, if a buddy or two friends want to bet on a specific game against each other, and I want to take this team and he wants to take another team, it’s fun that way because you can actually do it somewhere instead of just talking about it,” Liam said.
Zach said Fliff has been a fun activity he participates in with his friends and has also allowed him to grow closer with other people. He feels that it has added a new topic of conversation and enabled him to relate to others.
Zach said that, because Fliff gives you a free dollar a day, it is an excellent opportunity to learn how to bet without being reckless with your money.
“The way I’m doing it is I’m seeing everything as free money, and I’m not taking large amounts of money and putting them down and risking everything. I do think that there are definitely some risks and some factors that can go into longer-term addiction. I think it’s case-dependent; not everybody has the same reaction and feeling to winning a lot of money once and then needing to do it all over again multiple times. But for me, I feel it’s a no-brainer; I have a chance to win a lot of money almost every day. So I’m not as drawn to betting large amounts of money,” Zach said.
Guidance counselor Richard Gorman said he sees Fliff as a gateway to gambling.
“With everybody having a phone and access, that creates a greater problem for kids, where more kids will be doing it. More kids will be losing money or becoming, even probably a portion of those kids, possibly addicted to gambling at some point in time,” Gorman said.
Zach said that although it doesn’t happen often, people can withdraw money from Fliff. He said he has only withdrawn money once, and it was his first time using the app.
“Funny enough, first time I ever did it, it happened that I hit 70 bucks. So I turned $1 into $70 my first ever time, and it’s been all downhill since. But the mentality is you can do that, put it in, and you have a chance at winning,” Zach said.
Liam also commented that the app is suitable for avid sports watchers who enjoy betting on sports but don’t want to risk losing money.
“It’s cool because you don’t lose any money, and obviously, people can get too hooked into betting and do it all the time, which isn’t good. So it’s good to not have any real-life penalties or casualties if you lose a bet,” Liam said.
According to the Washington Post, apps like Fliff put youth in danger of developing addictions. Certain apps can potentially “groom” them into gambling behaviors at vulnerable ages. While mainly using virtual currency, some apps (including Fliff) enable real-money transactions, increasing the risk of financial harm.
Gorman said that in his opinion, Fliff ends up capitalizing on players no matter what.
“It’s designed to have people move traffic to their site. And then whoever owns the site is obviously making money off the number of subscriptions, viewers, advertising. And then if you know that all these places that do have gambling, they always win,” Gorman said. “The gambler never wins. Everybody talks about when they do win a bet, but they never talked about all the times that they lose, which is more often than not.”
A third student at the high school who will be referred to as Daniel also said he believes that using an app like Fliff can lead to the use of other online sports betting apps such as FanDuel and DraftKings that do use real money. He has used them before but has since quit. He said that many seniors have used these apps; however, he’s noticed that the majority of people are not gaining money.
Daniel said that Fliff and sports gambling have negative factors in addition to their benefits.
“The whole thing is probably bad. But it adds some excitement, some spice. You could look at it in a positive way. It creates some sociability, some fun times, some heartbreaks as well,” Miller said.
Zach said that although Fliff can be a good introduction to betting, you still have to be aware of how it affects you.
“I would say be careful. If you see yourself wanting to bet large amounts of money, that’s a sign that you should probably stop,” Zach said. “If you’re smart about it and you calculate every wager, I think there’s a right way to do it and then there’s also a wrong way to do it.”
