Gambling addiction has soared since sports betting was legalized in most of the US: study

NY Post ^ | 02/18/2025 | SWNS

[ChicagoConservative27]

Gambling addiction has soared since the legalization of sports betting in most American states, reveals a new study.

Researchers found a “dramatic” increase in sports betting and gambling addiction help-seeking since the landmark Murphy v. NCAA Supreme Court decision in 2018 paved the way for states to legalize gambling on sports.

Since the ruling, researchers from the University of California San Diego Qualcomm Institute and School of Medicine found a “staggering” growth in the sportsbook industry.

The number of states with operational sportsbooks grew from one in 2017 to 38 last year while total sports wagers skyrocketed from US $4.9 billion in 2017 to $121.1 billion in 2023, with 94% of wagers during 2023 placed online.

[Dilbert San Diego]

Good question. They aren’t allowed to bet but they may be doing so.

Considering the big money being paid to athletes in professional sports nowadays, it would seem risky to bet and endanger multi million dollar paydays.

[V_TWIN]

Back in the 80s we had a weekly football pool at work one year....try as I may I couldn’t win for anything......last week of the regular season was the last week for the pool and low and behold I finally won......just enough to cover my losses for all previous weeks.....I knew then gambling was a suckers bet

[Dr. Franklin]

The Pete Rose case is fundamentally distinct from discussions about gambling on sports by the general public.

Pete Rose accomplishments on the field as a player were made through determination and effort. Those accomplishments, the all time hit leader, among others, entitle him to recognition in the Hall of Fame. That is a separate and distinct issue from banning him from working for a baseball team after his playing days were over. People who confuse the two issues have a superiority problem and are judging others unkindly.

[Bon of Babble]

Yeah, I got caught up in it - but only lost $5.00.

[Dilbert San Diego]

And the people making that judgement are the people who run major league baseball. Commissioner Rob Manfred is the key person. He or his successors would have to lift the ban on Pete Rose,.posthumously, for Pete to ever be considered for the Hall of Fame.

[Alberta's Child]

Pete Rose might be in the Hall of Fame today if he had simply come clean back in the 1980s when his scandal first came to light. I'm convinced his permanent suspension had less to do with his initial transgressions than with his continuous lying about it -- even to the point where he was denying that he bet on ANY baseball games during his sentencing in federal court for tax evasion in 1990.

I suspect MLB is also punishing him for committing the cardinal sin (in the MLB world) of using the court system to successfully (temporarily) block commissioner Bart Giamatti from even conducting his initial investigation in the gambling scandal.

[GreenHornet]

Thanks to the convenience of online gambling, you can gamble away your home from the comfort of your own home.

[Biblebelter]

They do not advertise cigarettes on television for GOOD reason.

It GLAMORIZED a self-destructive habit.

I’m fine with legalized gambling.

It’s the promotion and glamorization through advertising that bothers me.

Same deal with alcohol.

No good reason to be advertising and glamorizing hard liquor on television.

Back in the day distilleries made a voluntary pledge not to advertise hard liquor on television.

That was before cable changed telecasting.

They should also BAN all prescription drug advertising as well as the clot shot.

[dfwgator]

Also the advancement of state lotteries is another factor. I mean hey, if the State advocates gambling, why not?

[dfwgator]

Didn’t help John Denver...

---

It wasn’t the getting high part, it was the coming down.

[dfwgator]

‘Cause the Rocky Mountain Way
Is better than the way we had

[Biblebelter]

Gubmint has taken over the rackets and put the mob as we knew it out of business.

Those boys and girls got of piece of all the action.

The racetracks, the casinos, the weed business and I assume the will find a way into the “sex worker” businessn

In some places gubmint setting up stations for junkies.

In Illinois the first thing the gubmint did after taking over the numbers rackets was pay Michael Jordan a couple of million to promote the numbers racket.

It made me laugh.

I thought how did the Five Families ever make any money on the numbers rackets without having guys like MJ pimping for them?

[Dr. Sivana]

This isn’t 1919 where players got relatively [little] money, and that fixing games was a huge enticement.

Agreed. Look for the weak link. The refs.

[Dr. Sivana]

They’ve had it in Britain for years, partially explains why Britain is a shell of its former self.

It is part of what makes England England. P.G. Wodehouse's "The Great Sermon Handicap" has wealthy Brits forming a syndicate to place bets on the length of the parson's sermon, the church picnic three legged race, and the egg-spoon run, among others. It is hilarious.

[Alberta's Child]

Fascinating presentation and discussion with John Dowd from 2014 (more than 70 minutes long):

The Dowd Report -- Pete Rose’s Ban from Baseball: 25 Years Later

[IndyTiger]

Pete deservedly got a lifetime ban from baseball for gambling. But now that his lifetime is over, put him in the HOF. Put a statement on his plaque that he was banned, but he deserves to be in, IMO.

Same for Shoeless Joe Jackson.

[gitmo]

Agreed. 100%

[cgbg]

Sports betting is the most dangerous kind of gambling.

Why? Because most folks who bet on sports think they are experts who have an edge.

Pride crushes them.

[Seruzawa]

Gamblers are worse than druggies. Druggies cause a lot of damage. But they usually die in a few years. Sad but at least it’s over. Gamblers go on for decades, ruining lives.

[T.B. Yoits]

The government wants this.

“So long as they (the Proles) continued to work and breed, their other activities were without importance. Left to themselves, like cattle turned loose upon the plains of Argentina, they had reverted to a style of life that appeared to be natural to them, a sort of ancestral pattern...Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbors, films, football, beer and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult.”
― George Orwell, 1984