Walk into any casino’s sports book, especially on a big event day, and two things are true.
Shane W. Kraus PhD, LP,
Associate Professor of Psychology at UNLV
There will be people betting and many of the same people will be enjoying an alcoholic beverage or two. The relationship between the two activities can be fraught with danger.
“Your drinking goes up, your gambling goes up,” said Shane W. Kraus, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Nevada Las Vegas and director of the university’s Behavioral Addictions Lab. “Your betting goes up, your drinking follows. They’re both intertwined; they’re kind of woven, in a sense. It’s like double trouble.”
Kraus is the co-author of “Binge Drinking Among Sports Gamblers,” published by JAMA Open Network and supported by the International Center for Responsible Gaming.
Over three weeks in 2022, researchers surveyed more than 4,300 adults in the U.S. Nearly 3,300 self-reported past-year alcohol use, while about 1,800 identified themselves as gamblers who had bet on sports in the past year.
Researchers found that sports gamblers were at least 1.9 times more likely to report consuming an excess of alcohol — defined as five or more drinks for men and four or more drinks for women at a single time — when compared with nongamblers and gamblers who don’t bet on sports.
Kraus says both behaviors stem from the brain’s response to dopamine.
“They both work on this dopamine pathway,” says Kraus, noting that if you build a five-lane freeway for alcohol, sports betting would be right there in the passenger seat.
“It’s hard to say, I’m only going to do betting,” Kraus notes. “But if you have alcohol, if the freeway is built … once you do one, you’re doing the other.
“The goal is to really help people not drink problematically or not gamble problematically. It’s really hard to get off of that freeway. Once you tie them together, it’s really tough to stop. The goal is to prevent that.”
Kraus admits there’s nothing intrinsically wrong about betting on a game or having a drink. But there may be issues when done simultaneously.
Bettors can avoid problems by gambling responsibly and setting limits. And it’s always better to place wagers before having a drink.
Because of the repeal of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act in 2018, leagues actively promote gambling, either through sponsorships or advertising. Leagues are also not shy about running advertising for beer.
Is there a connection to be made between how leagues promote gambling and ads for beer? Kraus isn’t sure, but notes that the language used is sometimes problematic.
“We know that experimental studies have shown that young men have made lots of bad decisions and are more likely to jump on that,” Kraus says. “How that affects someone who is 45, I don’t know. What I would say is what do you think about other things?
“We’ve eliminated a lot of ads for smoking. … And I think the ads don’t have to go away, but maybe there should be some thoughtfulness around ads.”
