In this episode of The Collector’s Compass, Alyx sits down with consumer-protection attorney Matt Litt for a long-overdue conversation: what happens when collecting starts to resemble gambling, and the law hasn’t caught up.

Matt brings deep experience in predatory gambling practices, consumer protection, and harm prevention. He’s spent years examining how casinos, sportsbooks, and betting platforms engineer urgency, chase behavior, and dopamine-driven engagement. More recently, he’s begun applying that same legal and behavioral lens to the modern sports card hobby—and what he’s seeing is unsettlingly familiar.

Together, Alyx and Matt unpack how gambling evolved from something that required physical presence and intention into an always-on, frictionless system—and why the hobby is increasingly following the same path. From hig ...