Medical Examiner The Atlantic’s Viral Gambling Story Is a Master Class in Reckless Journalism It’s like handing a case of liquor to a nondrinker and telling them to drink up for a story. Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by the Atlantic and Vitalii Borkovsky/iStock/Getty Images Plus. Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. A few weeks ago, a friend sent me a text that read, “The Atlantic gave a journalist $10k to gamble on sports betting apps to see how it affected him. I’m pretty sure they just created a gambling addict.” It seemed like a weird thing for the Atlantic to do in the year 2026, like a story from a bygone era, maybe something in Vice of the “I Tried Out Herbal Club Drugs, and It Was a Nightmare” variety. Surely, I thought, there must be something to the Atlantic’s piece that made it less reckless than it sounded. There wasn’t.…