Total Shocker: States That Legalized Sports Betting Had Sudden Surge of Gambling Addictions

Look, I know that you and I have no doubt wanted to give sports betting the benefit of every possible doubt, when it comes to drawing any conclusions on whether it might be a net positive or negative for American society. Far be it from us to go about casting stones at the industry that legalized a vice once thought of by the vast majority of people as generally repugnant, and enshrined it in the American living room. If we’re going to depict the new American pastime of laying down your paycheck on a deeply improbable parlay as a negative, it’s going to come from a place of data, alright? Let’s not go jumping the gu … oh wait, what’s that? You say that the data is in fact in? And that a new survey of electronic health records from across all 39 U.S. states that have legalized sports betting indicate a big increase in gambling addiction diagnoses in those states? Well, um … it could be a coincidence, maybe?

Or maybe not. The numbers aren’t good, folks. All told, across the 39 U.S. states in question, clinical diagnoses of gambling disorder, the medical term for what you or I would probably call “gambling addiction,” have risen more than 60% since 2018 when states started legalizing sports betting after a landmark Supreme Court decision. This is the most severe form of gambling we’re talking about here; people who are compulsively losing their retirement accounts, homes and pants, although maybe not in that order. Across those various states, the overall rate of gambling disorder diagnoses rose from 3.0 per 100,000 Americans to 4.8 per 100,000. All told, that equals many thousands of new gambling disorder diagnoses, compared to the rate that the disorder was being diagnosed at before. And you couldn’t ask for a bigger sample size, given that this data was culled from analyzing the health records of more than 197 million U.S. adults from 2018-2026.

Diagnoses of gambling disorder rose more than 60% since 2018 in states that have legalized sports betting, with the biggest increase among young men, according to a new study of electronic health records across the U.S.

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— NBC News (@nbcnews.com) 11:00 AM · Jun 26, 2026

Here’s what really drives the point home in devastating fashion, though: The same survey of data found that in the 11 states that have not legalized sports betting since 2018, during the exact same period, the rate of diagnosed gambling disorders actually FELL significantly. Cases dropped by 30% in those 11 states between 2018 and 2026, and the only overall difference between was whether or not the average dude could download sports betting apps for his phone. Anywhere that app works? Big increase in gambling disorder diagnoses. Anywhere it doesn’t work? Diagnoses fall. Now that implies a stark outlook on whether we should want the “nanny state” to step in and remove such temptations, don’t you think? As one social work professor studying gambling succinctly quipped to NBC News: “You increase access, you increase problems.”

Of course, the increases in diagnosed gambling disorders haven’t been just spread around evenly in our society. Anyone who has been paying attention for the last eight years has of course noted how heavily male-coded the sports betting and general gambling mania has been, which of course also includes the rise of prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket that now literally threaten our national security. The same was seen in this data on gambling disorder diagnoses: Men are far more likely to be diagnosed than women. And although the 30-49 year old age demographic remains the most diagnosed overall, no segment has been growing in diagnoses faster than 18-29 year old males, which have risen to a rate of 7.7 diagnoses per 100,000. By way of comparison, women aged 18-29 years old run a rate of only 1.0 gambling disorder diagnoses per 100,000 in 2026.

“This is extremely important evidence that speaks to not only the impact of legalization—but the inherently dangerous nature of how online gambling is fundamentally different than anything we’ve seen before,” said Harry Levant, director of gambling policy at the Public Health Advocacy Institute. “You’re introducing younger and more vulnerable people to a highly addictive product.”

i think in 15-20 years we will look back on legalizing sports betting and allowing platforms to advertise on TV as one of the greatest failings of the US as a society.

— Dex Anderson (@dexanderson.com) 11:07 PM · Jun 25, 2026

You can hardly blame those young people for at least being curious about sports betting, either, considering that our society has effectively become one giant funnel to direct them straight toward it in those 39 states that have legalized it. The professional sports leagues and the media networks that cover/work in conjunction with those leagues such as ESPN have completely shackled themselves to the business model and profitability that sports betting represents, to the point that they now can’t (and don’t want to) extricate themselves from it. And young people are so disillusioned in the broader economy, and do not buy that any upwardly mobile path exists for them to be able to make a good life for themselves, that they’re primed to delude themselves into thinking that they have a legitimate chance to strike it rich via something like sports betting. The house, of course, always wins, but that’s something every generation needs to learn for themselves. Only the prior generations didn’t all have a casino in their pocket that is open 24 hours a day.

It bears repeating that this data is a compilation of diagnoses of gambling disorder, meaning that in pretty much every one of these cases, it implies a problem that has probably gotten bad enough to entirely derail a person’s life before they end up seeking professional help. The previously quoted Harry Levant, a recovering gambling addict himself, observed the following: “It is an addiction that for many people is silent—there are no visible manifestations. By the time it is diagnosed, the amount of pain and suffering and misery on the person and their loved ones is enormous.”

What are the odds that America recognizes the mistake it has made? Sadly, I wouldn’t bet on it.