Madeline Bryce / Daily Nexus

UC Santa Barbara Counseling and Psychological Services (C.A.P.S.) opened the door to their newest service: support for failed sports gamblers on Feb. 9. C.A.P.S. counselors expect these services to be in heavy demand following the Super Bowl. Many bettors lost upward of thousands of dollars trying to predict various props from player yards to Gatorade color to the number of ads Morgan Freeman would feature in.

On the first day of service, over three thousand students visited or called for assistance. Informal polling of those waiting in line outside indicated that the 1-800-GAMBLER line had broken on Super Bowl Sunday due to the volume of simultaneous calls.

Nexustentialism had the opportunity to interview some of the waiting students. One student, Tim Burr, a second-year statistics and data science major, talked about his history with gambling. 

“I’m a professional at sports betting,” he told Nexustentialism reporters. “Just because I’m down right now doesn’t mean I’m out. I’ll take a visit to get back on my feet and go right back to the grind. All I need is one good hit and I’m set for life.” 

Analysis of his trading account shows that Burr placed bets on every single player prop and got all of them wrong.

“I didn’t realize I could lose so much money gambling,” another student, Will Powers, a fourth-year economics major, told our reporters. “It seemed like a fun game to play with friends, but now I’m down hundreds without any memory of how it happened.” 

Analysis of his trading account shows that Powers lost most of his money trying to predict the order of the Bad Bunny songs at the halftime show.

In the future, C.A.P.S. hopes that this service will make help available to those who need it. They also hope that students will stop calling to ask if they think Stephen Curry will hit over 26.5 points tonight. 

Associated Student won $300 because he predicted the coin toss correctly.