A 2024 study from Connecticut found that more than half of sports betting revenue comes from the highest severity of problem gamblers.
The sports betting industry relies more heavily on problem gamblers than any other form of gambling in the state.
Connecticut isn’t unique among states regarding access to gambling. Similar figures would be expected in other states that have sanctioned online sports betting.
Evidence for Sports Betting as Most Destructive
The proportion of Connecticut gambling revenue from about 2% of people with a severe gambling addiction ranges from 12.4% for lottery products to 51% for sports betting, according to the report from Gemini Research.
The proportion was 21.5% for all legalized gambling, making sports betting more than twice as harmful financially as the average gambling activity.
The Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) commissioned the study.
Sports bettors in Connecticut lose more than $100 million each year to sportsbooks.
Broadly, researchers found that over 70% of all legal gambling revenue in Connecticut is generated by fewer than 7% of residents who are classified as either problem (1.8%) or “at-risk” gamblers (4.9%).
The study didn’t determine how much of sports betting revenue is generated by the additional 5% of so-called “at-risk” gamblers. It’s possible that more than 90% of all sports betting revenue is generated by people with some level of a gambling problem.
The real problem gambling rate could be much higher than the study’s 7% because many people understate their gambling activity.
The study found that 30.7% of adults in the state don’t gamble, so the addiction rate would climb much higher as more people try online sports betting.
Just 10% of adults in the state reported betting on sports.
The study noted that, on average, three people are harmed for every problem gambler. That includes friends and family of the person addicted to gambling.
While sports betting isn’t as popular as other forms of gambling, it’s arguably the most financially destructive.
Read more: Sports Betting Addiction Statistics
Other Gambling Revenue Studies
Other research supports the Connecticut sports betting revenue findings.
A 2014 study in the Journal of Gambling Business and Economics examined the extent to which the betting industry relies on problem gambling.
According to the paper—Does Pareto Rule Internet Gambling? Problems Among The “Vital Few” & “Trivial Many”—it was the first study of its kind in the scientific literature.
It found that gambling was even worse than expected.
“By many measures, the online gambling customer base can be partitioned into Juran’s vital few and trivial many,” the study concluded. “The 80/20 rule is too generous, with even fewer than 20% of gamblers contributing to the 80% of revenues. Furthermore, the trivial many and the vital few are heterogeneous groups with recreational and disordered gamblers commingling.”
Between 4.6% and 17.8% of players accounted for 80% of gambling revenue.
The World Health Organization also has data on this topic.
According to a WHO gambling fact sheet, people gambling at harmful levels generate around 60% of global losses. The WHO figure includes in-person gambling, which is slightly less harmful than online betting.
Analysts expect global gambling revenue to reach US $700 billion by 2028.
Arguably no company in the world relies more heavily on problem gambling for its fortunes than the Australian sportsbook Betr. It was revealed in 2025 that Betr relied on just 20 gamblers for half of its revenue.
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