The Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine published an important and alarming investigation this week into the impact of the recent proliferation of sports gambling in the United States.

In short, gambling is creating what could be a mammoth health crisis that American governments need to take seriously.

This study examines the growth of sports gambling since the Supreme Court legalized it on the state level in 2018, and it asks important questions about the negative health effects that are silently harming too many individuals and families in the United States.

Horse betting in Utah?

For Utah lawmakers, this research comes just in time. Sen. David P. Hinkins, R-Ferron, is sponsoring legislation that would make pari-mutuel horse racing and wagering legal in Utah. The bill, SB156, barely passed out of the Senate Business and Labor Committee last week and is headed for the Senate floor. It deserves to be soundly defeated.

Are Utah lawmakers no longer aware of the timeless wisdom passed down by generations who have seen, time and again, how gambling leads to corruption and despair?

If this bill ever finds its way into law, social costs would follow, affecting individuals and families, and Utah no longer would be one of only two states (alongside Hawaii) that hasn’t dipped its toe into the foolish wave of legal gambling. Residents of the Beehive State should be thankful they have stood firm so far against this national tide, which feeds off a destructive, something-for-nothing ethic.

Sports betting explosion

The research published in JAMA found that sports wagers have gone from $4.9 billion in 2017 to an astounding $121.1 billion in 2023. This pokes a deep hole into counter-arguments that say legalization was necessary to control and legitimize what has been a vast underground gambling culture. In fact, legalization has acted as leaven, growing and expanding gambling in ways far beyond the small amounts that may have existed before.

Once the Supreme Court issued its 2017 ruling in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, which struck down a law that prohibited states from allowing or promoting sports gambling, the proliferation started in earnest. Almost overnight, the number of states allowing sports gambling went from one to 38.

Evidence of addictions

The research found a substantial and corollary increase nationwide in the number of online searches related to gambling addiction. These searches included terms such as “addiction,” “addict,” “anonymous” and “gambling addiction hotline.” They are evidence of desperation on the part of people who have awakened to their own compulsive and destructive behavior patterns. These search terms were especially high in states that have allowed online sportsbooks, letting residents gamble any time they want using computers or smartphones.

The “key points” section of the investigation report says, “These findings emphasize the need for public health efforts to study and address the potential harms associated with the rapid growth of sports betting.”

And yet, researchers said, states that reap the financial benefits of legal gambling rarely allocate any meaningful amount toward the treatment or, just as importantly, prevention of those health effects. In most states, the amount set aside is less than $1 million, with many contributing significantly less. That is scandalous.

Preying on the vulnerable

Meanwhile, as we reported earlier, gambling companies have exhibited predatory behavior toward problem gamblers, often encouraging them to spend more. Last year, The Wall Street Journal said sports betting companies “deploy so-called VIP hosts who form personal relationships with the biggest spenders, frequently handing out betting credits to encourage gamblers to deposit more of their money.” Often, those big spenders are compulsive gamblers who need help.

The evidence against gambling, and particularly sports betting aided by smartphone apps, is mounting. We agree with Manhattan Institute fellow and City Journal editor Charles Fain Lehman, who wrote last year in The Atlantic that the nation doesn’t need any more evidence to shut everything down.

“If the states are ‘laboratories of democracy,’ then the results of their experiment with sports gambling are in, and they are uniformly negative,” he wrote. “Better to end the study now than prolong the suffering.”

Scandals

It’s also better to end things now before major sports leagues suffer more gambling-related scandals, such as those that recently affected the NBA, NFL, Major League Baseball and the NHL.

An America that is obsessed with sports should be concerned about the integrity of the games it loves to watch, as well as about the changing nature of sports, where spreads, parlays and proposition bets take precedence over team loyalties.

Most of all, however, the nation should worry about the lives that are being ruined away from the spotlight, and the precious few resources those victims can turn to for help.