• Posted February 17, 2025

U.S. Gambling Addiction Searches Soar With Legal Sports Betting

Millions of Americans have sought help for gambling addiction in the wake of a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed states to legalize sports betting.

That's among the key findings in a new study published Feb. 17 in JAMA Internal Medicine. 

“Sportsbooks have expanded from a single state to 38 states, with hundreds of billions of wagers, mostly online, coinciding with record-breaking demand for help with gambling addiction as millions seek help,” study senior author John Ayers said in a news release. He's deputy director of informatics at the University of California San Diego Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute and a scientist at UCSD's Qualcomm Institute. 

His team reported that sports wagers rose from $4.9 billion in 2017 to $121.1 billion in 2023. Almost all of these bets -- 94% -- are now placed online.

“Sports betting has become deeply embedded in our culture,” said study co-author Matthew Allen, a third-year medical student. 

“From relentless advertising to social media feeds and in-game commentary, sportsbooks are now everywhere," he added in a news release. "What was once a taboo activity, confined to the fringes of society, has been completely normalized.”

The researchers noted that major industry shifts, including the rebranding of Caesars Entertainment as Caesars Sportsbook and Casino, signal that sports betting (sportsbooks) is being positioned as the future of gambling.

For the study, they combed through Google search data from 2016 to 2024, looking for queries that mentioned gambling, addiction, addict or anonymous hotline. 

Since the 2018 Supreme Court ruling, such queries jumped 23%, the study found. That translated to an estimated 6.5 million to 7.3 million searches nationwide for gambling addiction help. 

Queries also rose in states that opened sportsbooks -- Illinois (35%), Massachusetts (47%), Michigan (37%), New Jersey (34%), New York (37%), Ohio (67%), Pennsylvania (50%) and Virginia (30%).

“The significantly higher search volumes observed in all eight states make it virtually impossible that our findings occurred by chance,” said study co-author Atharva Yeola, a student researcher at the Qualcomm Institute. 

“Statistically speaking, the probability of these results happening randomly is less than one in 25.6 billion,” he added in a news release.

The study also found that online sports betting appears to pose an even greater risk than in-person sportsbooks.

For example, in Pennsylvania, the launch of retail sportsbooks resulted in a 33% increase in gambling addiction help-seeking searches.

When online sportsbooks became available, searches surged 61% — a significantly greater and more sustained increase that persisted for years.

“This pattern highlights the amplified risks associated with the accessibility and convenience of online sports betting,” said study co-author Adam Poliak, an assistant professor of computer science at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania.

Researchers called for stronger safeguards against gambling, including:

• Using sportsbook tax revenues to boost funding for gambling addiction services.

• Stricter advertising regulations, similar to those for tobacco and alcohol.

• Clinical training programs to help healthcare professionals diagnose and treat gambling addiction.

• Stronger safeguards for online sportsbooks, such as betting limits, age restrictions and restrictions on credit card use for gambling.

• Expanded public awareness campaigns to reduce stigma and encourage early intervention.

“Despite gambling addiction as a recognized disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, it remains largely overlooked in healthcare and public health with no formal ongoing surveillance,” co-author Dr. Kevin Yang, a third-year resident physician at UC San Diego Health, said in a news release. “Without systematic surveillance, we are flying blind while millions bet on sports.” 

Lead author Ayers concluded by calling for urgent legislative action. 

“Sportsbook regulations are lacking because the Supreme Court, not legislators, legalized them,” he said. “Congress must act now by passing commonsense safeguards."

"History has shown that unchecked industries -- whether tobacco or opioids -- inflict immense harm before regulations catch up," Ayers noted. "We can either take proactive steps to prevent gambling-related harms or repeat past mistakes and pay the price later.”

More information

The National Problem Gambling Helpline has a one-stop hub to connect people looking for assistance with a gambling problem to local resources.

SOURCE: University of California - San Diego, news release, Feb. 17, 2025