Rates of Problem Gambling Rise by 61% in States Regulating Sports Betting

A new study by Epic Research has indicated that the legalization of sports gambling is associated with an immediate spike in the number of people experiencing gambling disorders. According to the research, the exact rate is 61%. Problem Gambling on the Rise Since 2018 Researchers have drawn on examples from Pennsylvania and New Jersey, along with other states, where the number of people seeking help for gambling-related issues has raised. Epic Research argues that it has looked through the records of 200 million adults, an extensive data set, with the diagnoses affecting people between 18 and 29 at twice the rate after 2018, when sports gambling was legalized in the United States. Harry Levant, a therapist and director of gambling policy at the Public Health Advocacy Institute, has explained that the findings were not surprising and that people were simply able to access online gambling remotely and freely, without the need to drive to a physical location, which has served as a deterrent in the past. “There’s a whole new and fundamentally dangerous product called in-game microbetting. You can now bet on the speed of every pitch in every baseball game. You bet on every single snap of a football, every shot in a basketball game. This is action that’s happening every 10 seconds or faster,” Levant explained. According to the survey, there have been 3 gambling disorders diagnosed in 2018 per 100,000 patients, compared to 4.8 cases per 100,000 patients in 2026. Interestingly, states that have not legalized gambling have seen a decline in the number of cases diagnosed. States That Have Legalized Gambling See More People Searching for Help In other words, it’s not just that sports gambling legalization has driven more people to gamble – it has created the means to find and help people who may be struggling with problem gambling. The researchers have noted as much: “Even so, the directional contrast aligns with national survey and search-trend evidence of rising gambling-related help-seeking concentrated in states that have legalised sports betting.” Epic Research noted that gambling cases were on the rise in “parallel” and not growing as time went on, which the research chalks up to the arrival of gambling-like products from platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket. “One possible explanation is the parallel growth of online prediction markets such as Polymarket and Kalshi, which are not regulated as gambling at the state level and are accessible regardless of where a user lives,” the research warned.