New study shows ‘far-reaching’ financial pain of sports gambling

Monday, August 19, 2024 8:45 PM
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  • Margaret Fleming, Front Office Sports

Six years out from the widespread legalization and acceptance of sports betting in the United States, the sports world has been plagued over and over by scandals. A wave has hit in 2024, from Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter to Jontay Porter to most recently, the Notre Dame men’s swimming team. Now, a new study by researchers at BYU, Kansas, and Northwestern is linking sports betting with long-term negative financial consequences for gamblers.

The researchers used credit and debit card transaction data from 2010 to September 2023 to see how people spent their money, and they found a link between an increase in sports betting with a decrease in long-term financial planning.