Editor’s note: This month’s WAGER was written by Kiran Chokshi, a high school senior from New York who’s interested in research about sports betting.
Many of us participated in team sports when we were younger, and some still play. Gambling has become increasingly present in sports in recent years as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s May 2018 decision, which expanded sports betting in the U.S. Researchers have begun to examine gambling behaviors among athletes themselves, and an open question is whether adolescent team sport participation might make one more likely to gamble later in life as a young adult. This week, The WAGER reviews a study by Brendan Duggan and Gretta Mohan which examined the associations between young people’s gambling behaviors and participation in team sports.
What were the research questions?
(1) Does exposure to a team sports environment in late adolescence lead to a greater likelihood of engagement in gambling as a young adult? (2) Are there gender differences in this relationship?
What did the researchers do?
The researchers collected data from Growing Up in Ireland (GUI), a longitudinal study with 2 waves of data for 5,190 participants born in 1998. Participants were asked in both waves (at age 17 or 18 in 2015 – 2016, and at age 20 in 2018 – 2019) if they participated in team sports, and also if and how often they participated in gambling activities online or in person. Participants who reported gambling once a month or more were considered to be regular gamblers.
What did they find?
The researchers found that about one-third of participants took part in team sports, and males were more likely than females to play team sports and gamble at both waves. For both males and females, team sport participation significantly predicted future gambling engagement, both in terms of online gambling and regular gambling behavior. Participants who took part in team sports at both ages 17/18 and at age 20 had 2.44 higher odds of engaging in online gambling and 2.99 higher odds of being a regular gambler at age 20, when compared to participants who did not engage in team sports at either wave. When looking at the sample of males only, these relationships were stronger; males who participated in team sports at both waves had 3.8 higher odds of online gambling and 4.02 higher odds of gambling regularly, when compared to males who did not play team sports in both waves.
Figure. Figure shows the percentage of participants engaging in online or regular gambling based on their participation in team sports. Total N = 5,190. Adapted from Duggan & Mohan (2022).
Why do these findings matter?
Many professional sports teams and leagues are embracing betting and collaborating with sportsbooks, with some going so far as to sign sponsorship deals. Although gambling is prohibited to some extent among athletes at most levels of competition, problem gambling is a potential risk among amateur and professional athletes. The results from this study highlight how adolescent team sport participation predicts future online and land-based gambling, which could potentially lead to Gambling Disorder. Interestingly, many prevention groups, such as the New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports, recommend participation in team sports, clubs, and community groups as a positive outlet; however, this research suggests that kids who are playing sports might benefit from targeted public health programs about problem gambling. Future research should test the effectiveness of these prevention programs among amateur and elite athletes alike.
Every study has limitations. What are the limitations in this study?
Although the sample size in this study was large, all of the participants were from Ireland, so it’s unclear if these findings are generalizable to people in other countries with different gambling practices. The data in this study was also self-reported, so might under- or over-report actual gambling behaviors. A more specific limitation of the study is that it did not track the amount of gambling spending per person, so the authors were unable to determine how much money each participant spent or lost while gambling.
For more information:
If you or anyone you know has a gambling problem, visit the National Council on Problem Gambling for tools and resources to help. Resources for preventing underage gambling are also accessible through YouthDecide. For additional resources, including gambling and self-help tools, visit our Addiction Resources page.
Although Minnesota did not pass a bill legalizing sports gambling during the last session, many think it’s just a matter of time before it happens. With an eye toward the future – and an eye on the experiences of several other states who have legalized sports gambling – we talked to problem gambling leaders in New Jersey and Michigan for their observations and warnings. (The Summer 2023 issue of Northern Light highlighted the sports gambling experiences of Ohio and Pennsylvania.)
New Jersey
In New Jersey, where brick-and-mortar gambling has existed since 1978, online gambling was legalized in 2013. Sportsbooks became legal in 2018, leading to a dramatic increase in sports gambling.
Among other notable changes is the increase in gambling advertising, which has “bombarded the public,” according to Felicia Grondin, executive director of the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey (CCGNJ). She notes that the gambling industry’s advertising was $292 million in 2020 and $725 million a year later.
CCGNJ has worked with the state to regulate gambling advertising. The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) has begun a new responsible gambling initiative whereby operators must abide by certain requirements, including the frequency of advertising and font size (to ensure visibility of problem gambling helpline information). CCGNJ has also been advocating for a PSA-type ad that will inform the state’s residents of the potential for gambling harm.
Increase in Calls for Help
Calls to the state’s problem gambling helpline are up dramatically. Of the increase in helpline calls, 20 percent are related to sportsbooks and 27% are related to online play, a considerable portion of which is presumed to be related to sports gambling. There’s been a reduction in general calls from people asking where to find casinos, what winning numbers are for the lottery, etc., but calls have increased from those who need help with a gambling problem. “I think the public is starting to understand more about the purpose of our 800GAMBLER helpline and how it works,” says Felicia.
Effective Communications with State Legislature
CCGNJ has also put an emphasis on communications with the state legislature, which Felicia says has proven fruitful. They engage legislators on various problem gambling topics through visits to the statehouse and bi-monthly blogs. Thanks to these efforts, the state has been more deliberate in its approach to gambling. One example is reducing a ten-year extension for online gambling to five years. “Legislators are recognizing that people are developing gambling problems and the importance of monitoring its related impact,” says Felicia.
Educating School Students
Shortly before the state assembly introduced a bill to require schools to provide instruction on the risks of gambling, as they do with other public health issues, the CCGNJ created the Cognitive Perspective Restructuring program (CPR). The program educates kids about risky behavior, including gambling, and how to make wise choices for a bright future.
As it relates to Minnesota, Felicia cites several things that our state should think about as it considers legalizing sports gambling:
o Establish parameters around advertising — frequency, the content, where it’s aired, etc.
o Post warning labels at brick-and-mortar locations as well as online.
o Ensure that students are educated about the risks of gambling at an early age.
o Produce public service announcements to create greater awareness.
o Request an increase in problem gambling funding commensurate with expected growth in gambling.
Michigan
Michigan officially legalized sports betting in December 2019. The first retail sportsbooks in the state opened in March 2020 and the online launch took place in January 2021.
The growth in sports gambling echoes the growth occurring around the nation. In September 2023, Michigan sportsbooks tallied $457.7 million in bets for the month. This represents a 25.6% increase from September of 2022.
With the availability of online gambling, Michael Burke, executive director of the Michigan Association on Problem Gambling, says it’s as though Michigan has gone from 34 casinos to a state that has 10 million casinos in the pockets of each resident. “It used to take people five to ten years to get addicted, but with easier access now, it’s more like five to ten months,” he says. Michael also is concerned about the impact of easy access on youth gambling and says that educating kids about the risks is vital.
According to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, in the first year since the legalization of sports betting and online gambling in Michigan, more than 4,400 calls were made to the state’s problem gambling helpline in 2021. This was nearly triple the number of calls received in 2020, the year before online gambling was approved. Referrals for people to receive gambling treatment also grew significantly, from 295 referrals in 2020 to 420 referrals in 2021, a 42% increase.
As Michael looks to a state (such as Minnesota) that hasn’t yet legalized sports gambling, he has a warning. “If you’re going to bring in gambling, you have to know what the results are going to be as far as compulsive gambling is concerned,” he says. “Legislators need to take their responsibility seriously and ensure that there’s something in place for a person who suffers harm from gambling. That’s the least they can do.”
Although Minnesota did not pass a bill legalizing sports gambling during the last session, many think it’s just a matter of time before it happens. With an eye toward the future – and an eye on the experiences of several other states who have legalized sports gambling – we talked to problem gambling leaders in Pennsylvania and Ohio for their observations and warnings. The next issue of Northern Light will highlight the sports gambling experiences of Michigan and New Jersey.
Pennsylvania
In Pennsylvania, retail sports betting debuted in November 2018, followed by the introduction of online and mobile options beginning in May 2019. What started as a relatively small piece of legislation to modernize the helpline ultimately grew to include online lottery games, fantasy sports and truck stop video gaming terminals (essentially small casinos). The bill also authorized airport gambling but that is not available yet.
Growth in sports gambling in the state has been astronomical. In 2019, the handle – the amount of money bet/put at risk – was $1.5 billion. By 2022, the handle was $7.25 billion, which represents roughly one percent of Pennsylvania’s gross domestic product. (Prior to sports gambling expansion, Pennsylvania gambling revenue (all forms) was $3.1 billion. By 2022, revenue passed the $5 billion mark, with the growth in sports gambling cited as a major reason.)
Helpline calls have also gone up markedly in Pennsylvania. In the first year, with just a few months of both brick-and-mortar and online sports gambling, there were 30 calls. In 2022, there were more than 300 calls specifically for sports gambling. Overall call volume (for all forms of gambling) has also increased, going from an average of about 1100 prior to gambling expansion to more than 1200 through the middle of 2023.
“In addition to the uptick in problems related to sports betting, this increase might also be related to wider advertising of the helpline number,” says Josh Ercole, executive director of the Council on Compulsive Gambling of Pennsylvania. “It’s possible that folks have been struggling for a while and just now are learning that help is available.”
In general, Josh was pleased with precautionary measures that accompanied Pennsylvania’s legalization of sports gambling. “We asked for a lot — and got close to everything.”
However, with the benefit of hindsight, Josh wishes that more attention was paid to the language of advertising, specifically the mention of “no-risk bets” that really aren’t. He also wishes that — at least in the beginning — consumers who opened accounts were made more aware of the capability of adding limits to their betting. However, as of several months ago, when new bettors sign up, they are made more aware of how they can govern their play.
Josh feels that the culture for the gambling industry has begun to change, and is at least partly attributable to the growth in sports gambling. “I think the industry sees that gambling problems are not sustainable and they want to address responsible gambling as part of the culture,” says Josh.
Josh also feels that it’s important for states to learn from other states. “In Pennsylvania we were able to look at other states with casinos and online regulations. We’re also fortunate that the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board is always looking for new possibilities and regulations to implement to emphasize player protection.”
Ohio
A wide-ranging sports gambling bill was signed by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine in December 2021, and went into effect on January 1, 2023. Notably, the bill stipulated a universal start for all forms of sports gambling: mobile sports, brick-and-mortar sports books, and sports betting kiosks (primarily bars, restaurants and bowling alleys) licensed by the Ohio Lottery.
During the first month (January 2023), the handle for sports gambling was approximately $1 billion. It has since subsided but is expected to pick up again in the fall.
Gambling advertising blanketed all outlets. “It didn’t matter whether you were watching television, streaming a station or listening to the radio,” says Derek Longmeier, executive director of the Problem Gambling Network of Ohio.
Derek notes that one piece the Ohio legislation got right was having firm guidelines for marketing.Advertisers couldn’t promote risk-free bets unless they were truly risk-free, and every ad was required to detail a state or national gambling helpline clearly and conspicuously.
The Ohio bill set aside two percent of gambling tax revenue (which initially was set at 10 percent but later increased to 20 percent) for problem gambling efforts managed by the state gambling commission. The bill also allowed Ohio colleges and universities to collect data to analyze the impact of sports betting on student gambling. Ohio also prohibited gambling advertising on college and university campuses, the first state in the country to do so.
There has been a substantial increase in helpline calls in Ohio since the introduction of legalized sports gambling. In the first month (January 2023) of sports gambling, there were about 1500 calls, compared to under 500 calls in January 2022. The October-December 2022 period also saw a record high number of calls.
Derek says it’s not clear that the increase in helpline calls correlates directly with sports gambling. “Because of marketing, the helpline was more visible on all advertising, so it’s possible that more gamblers, not just sports gamblers, sought help for the first time.”
Looking back on Ohio’s process, Derek thinks a phased-in approach might have been better than a universal start date. The state gambling commission was under considerable pressure to write rules while also doing compliance checks for numerous operators. Derek also feels that consumer access — which went from literally nothing to everything overnight — didn’t allow new consumers to become well educated about gambling.
Problem gambling advocates in Ohio sought to exclude sports betting ads on professional athlete’s jerseys but were not successful. (A compromise was a prohibition on youth jersey advertising.)
Derek also emphasizes that problem gambling advocacy organizations, such as MNAPG, should be aware of how little legislators might understand about sports gambling. “With legislators and in conversations, the response we often received was, ‘Wow, this was so much more complicated than we knew,’ says Derek. “Legislators often only hear from sports betting advocates about how great gambling will be.An important piece of work is to really showcase the importance of advocacy and having subject matter experts in the community share their thinking.”
Derek also encourages a focus on infrastructure so that all parts of a state are represented with certified gambling treatment counselors and to include appropriate telehealth options to communities challenged with identifying and cultivating counselors.
Video games have drawn the attention of activists and public health advocates since as early as the 1970’s. Many of these activists have focused on the intense depictions of violence in video games and suggest that these depictions may lead to real-life violence. One area that is often neglected, however, are depictions of substance use and gambling in video games. Although regulators have begun to investigate loot boxes and their relationship with problem gambling, other forms of gambling in video games have received less attention. For example, skin betting (i.e., exchanging virtual goods for digital gambling currency) — which was first popularized by the game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive — has evolved from betting on in-game matches to skins being used as currency in other games of chance such as roulette. Many of those involved in these underground gambling networks are adolescents who are unable to engage in traditional gambling. This week, the WAGER reviews a study by Nancy Greer and colleagues that examined links between esports, skin betting, and problem gambling.
What was the research question?
How does esports and skin betting relate to other forms of gambling and gambling harms?
What did the researchers do?
The researchers recruited participants through Amazon Mechanical Turk and social media posts in online gaming communities to participate in an online survey. All participants reported either esports cash or skin betting, or gambling skins on games of chance in the past 6 months. In total, 737 participants completed the survey. The survey itself focused on four broad categories: (1) video game involvement, (2) video game-related gambling (including betting on esports), (3) traditional gambling, and (4) problem gambling and gambling-related harms. The researchers used ordinal logistic regression to test the hypothesis that video game involvement increases the likelihood of engaging in video game-related gambling, which in turn increases the likelihood of engaging in traditional gambling and experiencing gambling harms.
What did they find?
Though video game involvement related to video game-related gambling, video game-related gambling was only slightly related to traditional gambling. Consider three different video game-related types of gambling: esports cash betting, esports skin betting, and skin betting on other games of chance. Of these, only esports cash betting frequency significantly predicted involvement in traditional gambling activities. Interestingly, although the sample overall reported high rates of problem gambling and gambling harms, neither esports cash betting nor esports skin betting significantly predicted problem gambling or gambling harms. When controlling for other forms of traditional gambling, only skin gambling on games of chance was predictive of problem gambling and gambling harms (see Figure).
Figure. This figure displays the odds of experiencing problem gambling and gambling harms based on video game-related gambling behaviors. Odds ratios above 1.00 indicate that for every one unit increase in the predictor variable (video game-related gambling behaviors) the odds of being one category higher in the outcome variable (problem gambling or gambling harms) increases by X times. An odds ratio below 1.00 indicates that the odds decrease by X times. For example, a one unit increase in esports cash betting frequency would mean a participant is 1.033 times as likely to experience a one unit increase in their problem gambling severity. Only skin betting on games of chance was significantly associated with either outcome variable. Click image to enlarge.
Why do these findings matter?
These findings suggest that buying skins and esports gambling are not risk factors for problem gambling in and of themselves. Rather, skin gambling on games of chance appears to increase the risk of gambling harms. It remains unclear whether individuals who gamble skins on games of chance do so because they have exhausted other financial resources, or if skin gambling on games of chance directly increases the risk of problem gambling and other gambling harms. Regardless, these findings suggest that regulatory bodies should consider focusing on gambling operators who facilitate skin gambling on games of chance, rather than other more traditional esports focused operators.
Every study has limitations. What are the limitations in this study?
This study has significant limitations in terms of its generalizability. Participants were required to have gambled either on esports or via using skins in the past six months, so the results likely do not represent video game players as a whole. The study also failed to include anyone under the age of 18 despite the fact that many people who gamble using skins are adolescents. Additionally, due to the study’s limited sample size, the researchers were unable to conduct path analysis, an analytical technique that allows for estimating causal effects instead of only statistical associations.
For more information:
Individuals who are concerned about their gambling behaviors or simply want to know more about problem gambling may benefit from visiting the National Council on Problem Gambling. Others who want to learn more about video game addiction can find information via the Cleveland Clinic. Additional resources can be found at the BASIS Addiction Resources page.
The 2023 Minnesota legislative session started off with an early entry of the House’s sports betting bill, later followed by an almost identical version by the Senate. Over the weeks, MNAPG was in communication with Rep. Zack Stephenson and Sen. Matt Klein to discuss our continued concerns for increased consumer protections. As we write this, it’s still unclear if the bill will pass. We did manage to get an op-ed piece published in the Star Tribune regarding sports betting. You can read it at www.mnapg.org/ news.
If approved, licenses would be provided to tribal nations around Minnesota to create sportsbooks at casinos, and Minnesotans age 21 and older could also place wagers through their phones, using online apps.
Bill sponsors have said revenue would go toward regulations and consumer protections, with another 40% used to address problem gambling. Susan Sheridan Tucker, executive director of the Minnesota Alliance on Problem Gambling, said that language is appreciated, but she asked lawmakers if information-sharing can be included, too.
“Operators and their licensees will be collecting quite a bit of data that can help answer many questions that researchers have concerning gambling behaviors,” she said, “and can provide insights into whether more individuals are becoming addicted to gambling.”
Tucker, whose organization is neutral on legalizing sports betting, stressed that no personal information, including a bettor’s identity, would be shared. She said at least two other states have these provisions in their laws. The Minnesota Indian Gaming Association has said it needs more information before commenting on that recommendation.
David Prestwood, government affairs manager for the online betting firm DraftKings, echoed that sentiment in his testimony.
“An estimated 1.17 million people in the state are making a combined total of more than $2.5 billion in illegal wagers annually,” he said. “Nearly all of these wagers are placed online in the robust illegal market, where sophisticated illegal operators capitalize on the popularity of this form of entertainment.”
As for the sharing of aggregated data, the bill’s sponsor expressed a willingness to have more discussions about it. More broadly, the current version excludes horse tracks, potentially complicating final passage in the Legislature.
