Legal sports betting appears to be worsening food hardship for hundreds of thousands of U.S. households, according to a study comparing nine states that legalized online and retail sports betting with states where both forms of betting remained illegal.
The study, which came from the National Bureau of Economic Research, is just the latest research showing the population-level financial harm linked to legal sports betting.
More People Going Hungry
Researchers analyzed changes in legalization between 2021 and 2023 and found that household food sufficiency (i.e., whether households have enough to eat) declined among working-age adults without a college degree following the legalization of sports betting.
The analysis primarily used Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey data collected every two weeks, along with Google search trends and state-level sports gambling data.
The study estimated a 2.1% reduction in food sufficiency for that group. Because the figure is a population-wide estimate that includes people who do not gamble, the researchers estimated that the decline could equal roughly 10.5% among active bettors if one in five U.S. adults routinely places bets.
Delayed Harm
Food hardship generally emerged within about two months of legalization. It persisted for three to five months and returned during later NFL seasons.
The declines were larger among adults ages 25 to 44 and non-white adults.
Researchers said the main mechanism appeared to be financial stress. Legalization increased the share of respondents who found it difficult to pay their usual expenses by 3.7 percentage points.
The study found little evidence that the reduction in food sufficiency was primarily explained by changes in mental health, employment, or earnings.
The analysis also found that legalization reduced the likelihood that renters were current on their rent by 2.4 percentage points. In addition, spending on food eaten away from home fell by $3.74 per week.
Social Costs of Sports Betting
Using a “back-of-the-envelope calculation,” the researchers estimated that sports betting legalization in the nine states created about 284,000 additional food-insufficient households and $130.2 million in excess annual healthcare costs.
The $130.2 million accounted for 23.1% of the sports betting tax revenue collected by states in 2023.
The industry has continued to grow at a rapid clip. In 2025, the U.S. sports betting market reached nearly $17 billion, with states collecting $3.71 billion in taxes from betting operators, according to the American Gaming Association.
The authors acknowledged reliance on self-reported survey data and the lack of individual-level betting records. The study also did not look at legal online casino gambling or federally regulated prediction-market-style sports betting.
Still, the findings add to the growing evidence that the rapid expansion of traditional sports gambling imposes serious costs on households, especially those already facing financial pressure. Sports betting may also be affecting people’s ability to afford a home or repay student loans.
Sports betting legalization has also been linked to increased crime around game days.
Views Towards Legal Betting
As social costs mount, public perception of the sports betting industry has weakened.
According to a May 2026 survey, more U.S. voters oppose legalization than support it. A late 2025 poll from the Pew Research Center found that support is eroding among young men, the customer base for betting apps.
Early 2026 polling from the Siena Research Institute found that 60% of online sports bettors report chasing their losses, a core sign of a gambling problem.