It’s on your TV screens, your phones and social media newsfeeds. You hear it in between songs, in podcasts and on the radio. It plays repeatedly during every national sporting event like clockwork. Everybody, sports fan or not, seems to have fallen victim to its advertising , which borders on brainwashing. I’m talking about fantasy sports ads.

Upstart companies like Draftkings and FanDuel have taken communication outlets by storm the past year, relentlessly trying to get people to play fantasy sports to “earn” cash prizes. By simply applying the knowledge of the game they already play through stats and predictions, fans can join these websites and bet on players. Based off the results in the game people can win enormous cash prizes.

In what seems like an overnight takeover of the sport industry, these companies have gotten everybody’s attention, and not necessarily in a good way.

Teenagers, NFL franchise owners and anybody in between can be heard talking about fantasy sports for cash and investing. On paper, daily fantasy sites are already worth billions of dollars. If you are still unaware of these sites, look no further than the last GOP debate, where even presidential candidates were reluctant to address the issue.

These websites have come under major scrutiny starting in early October while Draft Kings and FanDuel were (and still are) reaping massive amounts of success from people who play fantasy sports. A serious conflict of interest arose when a FanDuel employee, using his insider information from the company, made a fantasy account with rival website Draft Kings and proceeded to win $350,000 from the bets he took on players.

Soon after, ethical allegations had rose whether playing fantasy sports to win cash was any different than gambling. An article from the New York Times quoted a FanDuel spokesperson claiming that “FanDuel employees have won around $10 million using their own accounts.” Lawmakers have been making a push to draw up legislation to control the new and unregulated industry.

What happens next regarding the legality of fantasy websites will be crucial in the sports industry. Illegal online gambling is already a serious problem in America. Allowing fantasy sites to conduct business like it currently is would unleash a new flood of gambling culture to millions of Americans.

Right now, over 56 million people play fantasy sports in America according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association. With the option to play a daily game with the chance to win prize money, it would only encourage current players to make the transition. People who play fantasy sports are typically younger, educated and have full time employment.

Essentially, everybody that plays fantasy sports will be exposed to the self destructive tendencies and behaviors found in online gambling rings. And not only will it be legal, it will be at the fingertips of a younger generation vulnerable of getting hooked.

Fantasy sports used to be a hobby, a game played between friends with the sole purpose of just having fun. Unfortunately, like most things in life, when money becomes involved, things tend to easily become corrupted. As an avid sports fan and fantasy player, I’m very concerned about what these websites are doing to change the game for a profit.

An argument can be made that much worse things in the world are going on that should be focused on, but that doesn’t make it any less of a problem. Just ask yourself, don’t professional sports (and college sports for that matter) in America have enough ethical problems as it is?