Sports Betting Surge Matched by Addiction Grip on U.S.

16 September 2026

The expansion of legalized sports betting across the U.S. in recent years has coincided with a troubling rise in gambling addictions that public-health experts say are reaching crisis levels. Since the 2018 Supreme Court decision allowing states to legalize and regulate sports gambling, online betting has exploded in popularity, with total wagers skyrocketing from $4.6 billion in 2017 to $119.8 billion in 2023. Yet this boom has also brought with it an urgent public-health concern: research is now establishing a clear link between expanded betting options and a surge in problem gambling.

Legalization and the widespread use of smartphones have made sports betting deceptively easy. Online betting now accounts for a staggering 93% of all sports wagers, according to a 2023 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Easy access, combined with the targeted marketing and persuasive technology that gambling companies use, has led to a sharp increase in the medical, psychological, and financial harms of problem gambling.

National internet search data reveals that queries related to gambling addiction rose 24% after the Supreme Court's ruling, reports the University of California San Diego. In several states, including Illinois, New Jersey, and New York, the demand for addiction resources is significantly outpacing what experts predicted. Data from the American Psychiatric Association shows that gambling disorder diagnoses are spiking too. In states that allow sports betting, problem gambling diagnoses went from 3.1 per 100,000 to 4.7 per 100,000 between 2018 and 2023, a 60% increase. The diagnoses disproportionately affect young men, ages 18 to 29.

But the gambling addiction challenge extends beyond demographic shifts. Research links betting addiction with several serious mental and public-health problems. A 2023 report published by The Lancet, a leading medical journal, estimated that around 440 million people worldwide experience symptoms of gambling disorder, including over 70 million who qualify for the diagnosis. Gambling disorder has strong ties to depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and co-occurring alcohol and substance use problems.

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Experts are pushing hard to reframe gambling addictions as a public-health concern that threatens the whole community. That means looking beyond the mental- and physical-health impacts on individual gamblers, which already carry an enormous human and societal price. The public-health framing means reckoning with harms like financial strain on households, family disruption, and increased pressure on social services.

But these steps may be too late for many.

Young men are the clear focus of the sports betting boom, with online gambling marketed at them aggressively, and sportsbooks dominating their screens. Health officials report consistent evidence that 18-29-year-olds are experiencing gambling-addiction issues at drastically higher rates since 2018. A 2023 study found a concerning number of young men are so addicted to sports betting that gambling consumes more than 40 hours of their weekly time, damaging their mental health and disrupting careers and relationships.

Looking ahead, one goal is expanding addiction treatment for gamblers. States are increasing spending on therapy, residential addiction treatments, and peer-support networks. Another focus is more data collection. Tracking both who's betting and who's struggling will help officials safeguard vulnerable populations, like low-income families or people with mental health problems, and prove the need for more treatment.