As the U.S. grapples with a wide-ranging mental health crisis, including worsening gambling addiction, the White House seeks to expand the nation’s prison system.
The 2027 fiscal year budget request shows a strong preference for prisons and punitive state capacity, while cutting or restructuring behavioral health infrastructure. The budget could have a devastating impact on people with addiction.
Studies show that as many as 1 in 3 inmates experience problem gambling.
More Bars, More Guards
The budget would “dismantle many behavioral health programs serving millions of Americans struggling with mental health and substance use disorders,” the consumer advocacy group Families USA said in a statement.
Democrats in the House Appropriations Committee said in a statement that the budget would “slash funding for substance use prevention and treatment programs, as well as mental health programs, at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), sabotaging recent progress in addressing the opioid crisis.”
The budget would effectively end SAMHSA as a standalone agency and move its reduced capacity into a new “Administration for a Healthy America” (AHA). Hundreds of millions of dollars could be at stake.
Meanwhile, an additional $1.7 billion would be spent to shore up the U.S. prison system, including $152 million to reopen the notorious Alcatraz off the coast of California.
Online Gambling Crisis
The budget proposal would not address mental health concerns rising from an exploding U.S. online gambling market.
There would be no dedicated funding for gambling addiction among the general public. Proposed legislation in the form of the POINTS Act has been introduced in Congress to establish desperately needed funding for gambling addiction.
Earlier this year, the federal government opened the door to federal research on gambling addiction in military populations. Gambling advocates hailed it as historic progress.
The gambling crisis comes as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has helped unleash a federally regulated form of sports betting through prediction markets. The CFTC took the unprecedented step this week of suing several states to protect prediction markets.
Multiple states have challenged or moved against prediction-market firms over claims of illegal sports gambling.
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