Online gambling has been growing around the country as more states legalize, leading to concenrs about its impact on consumers’ financea and mental health.
Online gambling is generally regarded as more addictive than in-person betting. Online gaming became legal in Massachusetts in 2023 and a recent study shows that people in Massachusetts who gamble regularly are gambling more and having more problems because of it.
Researchers surveyed people who gamble monthly or more often. They found that:
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More people are having problems with gambling: The number of people who said they were experiencing harm from gambling has gone up each year.
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People are gambling on more things: More people are playing the lottery, betting on sports, and gambling online.
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People are worried about gambling: More people are starting to think that gambling is harmful and that it can be addictive.
The researchers think that the increase in gambling problems might be because of the pandemic ending and because sports betting is now legal in Massachusetts. They are concerned that these trends could lead to even more people having problems with gambling in the future.
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission reported earlier this month that the month of September 2024 generated approximately $92.06 million in gross revenue.
Additionally, roughly $73 million in taxable sports wagering revenue was generated across the eight mobile/online sports wagering licensees and the three in-person licensees for the month of September.
The situation isn’t unique to Massachusetts. Online sports betting has grown in popularity in recent years, as it’s become legal in 38 states across the U.S., plus Puerto Rico and Washington D.C.
Nationwide, according to the American Gaming Association (AGA), the combined revenue from online sports betting and iGaming (online casino games) in 2022 was $9.04 billion. It’s expected to continue rapid growth.
Experts around the country have found that consumers have been saving less and overall, credit scores have taken a dip. On top of that, financial institutions have lowered the available credit limits for many consumers who have a history of spending issues.
From 2% to 25.6%
The study was the latest of three and while it can’t be applied to the overall population, it paints a picture of changing behaviors and attitudes over time among regular gamblers, defined as those who gamble monthly or more frequently.
Among monthly gamblers in the online surveys, those experiencing gambling problems jumped from 12.7% in 2014 to 20.9% in 2022 to 25.6% in 2023. This compares to a 2% prevalence of problem gambling that held steady in general population surveys conducted before and after casinos were introduced in Massachusetts.
“It’s pretty startling, to be honest,” said Rachel Volberg, principal investigator for the study. “While the online panels were not representative of the population, they were very informative in regards to people with gambling difficulties. It’s very helpful from a surveillance and monitoring perspective.”
The survey found increases among monthly gamblers in the online panels in lottery games, sports betting, private wagering, horse racing, bingo and online gambling.
This suggests the impact of the pandemic, which deterred gambling behavior, may be diminishing, Volberg says – and also that the pandemic “probably suppressed the gambling behavior of people who were gambling recreationally more than the behavior of people who were at risk for a gambling problem.”
Sports betting was still new
The latest of the three online surveys was carried out shortly after sports betting began in Massachusetts. According to the online surveys, monthly gamblers who said they did not participate in sports betting in the previous 12 months dropped from 78.2% in 2014 to 45.7% in 2023, the year that legal sports betting became fully operational in Massachusetts.
In 2023, 28.3% of monthly gamblers said they did sports betting at least weekly, up from 18.8% in 2022 and 7% in 2013.
Volberg thinks that the spate of advertising and news coverage of the legalization of sports betting in Massachusetts may have affected some monthly gamblers in a negative way.
“I think it has led people who are already vulnerable to engage or re-engage with this particular type of gambling that’s now getting lots of media attention,” she says.
More think it’s harmful
The latest online survey also showed increases in the proportion of monthly gamblers who believe both that the harm of gambling outweighs the benefits and that gambling addiction is the most important negative impact of casinos. There was a decline in the proportion who believe that employment is the most important positive impact of casinos and that all types of gambling should be legal.
“Based on the general population survey that was done in 2021, I didn’t expect that we would see a big change in attitudes toward gambling, but we do seem to be seeing that, especially among the people betting on sports,” Volberg says.
Volberg says that while online panels are not representative of the population, it is reasonable to assume that the changes in behavior and attitudes of the monthly gamblers in the online panels are likely to reflect changes in how monthly gamblers in the general population might be behaving.
“I think it’s definitely a cause for concern about what the population impacts of sports betting are going to be because these indicators from the monthly gamblers in the online panel are not going in a direction that says there’s going to be less gambling harm in Massachusetts in the future,” Volberg said.
