Joe Rogan has sparked fresh controversy after defending sports gambling on an episode The Joe Rogan Experience with Brian Redban, even as FBI investigations into betting scandals engulf professional sports.
The timing couldn’t be more problematic, with more than 30 federal indictments related to suspicious betting activity. This includes former NBA players and strange performances like Isaac Dulgrain’s UFC Vegas 110 match, triggering alarm bells across the industry.
Rogan’s argument centers on prohibition logic: banning betting apps would simply push gamblers into dangerous underground markets, much like alcohol prohibition fueled organized crime.
“It’s not good to make it illegal because then people are just going to get it somewhere else, right? And bad versions of it.” he explained. “They’re going to go out and they’re going to support illegal gambling. They’re going to go to people’s houses where they’re going to have poker games and they’re going to get robbed. You know, it’s going to… you’re just going to open people up to crime.”
But here’s where it gets complicated: Rogan hasn’t always sung this tune. For years, he’s described gambling as being as destructive as co**ine.
He previously stated, “It’s just like c*caine. It’s just like a d**g abuse. It’s just like the opiate problem. It’s just like anything else.”
In a previous episode, Rogan had shared stories about growing up around gambling addicts and how the movie Uncut Gems “hit home” because of how accurately it portrayed the compulsive cycle.
He’s even called UFC CEO Dana White a “g*mbling a*dict” for swinging hundreds of thousands of dollars in single nights.
Rogan said: “My good friend Dana White is a g**bling addict… He goes hard… We went visit to him at Red Rocks… When we got there he was $600,000 down, playing Blackjack, but at the end of the night he stayed till like 6 in the morning he was $600,000 up… It’s a real d**g and it’s a really weird one…”
The shift becomes harder to ignore when you consider Rogan’s current sponsorship deal with DraftKings. The Joe Rogan Experience actively promotes the betting platform, creating an unavoidable tension between his earlier warnings and his current financial relationship with the industry.
When Russell Crowe appeared on the podcast and criticized the normalization of gambling, Rogan notably went quiet—a rare moment of silence from a host known for engaging every controversial topic head-on.
Critics see this as a convenient pivot driven by self-interest rather than genuine evolution of thought. Rogan’s platform reaches millions, making his messaging particularly influential. It’s quite ironic that a man who once compared b*tting to hard d**gs now defends the very industry he profits from.
