A wave of U.S. states is considering overhauls to gambling laws and updating regulations meant to protect consumers who exhibit signs of problem gambling. Media outlets have picked up on a particular angle, young men and the allure of sports betting, producing stories in North Carolina, New York, and Florida, as well as in the New York Times, CNN, and Rolling Stone.
Indeed, with the proliferation of legal sports betting in 39 states since the Supreme Court’s 2018 Murphy v. NCAA ruling, there have been upticks in problem gambling among men, and the average age of callers to help hotlines has dropped in certain states from 43 to 38. But the state of problem gambling is not as dire as critics of legalization would have you believe, and the best results for curbing self-destructive behaviors are coming from the states that both legalize and craft targeted regulations.
