As Missouri becomes the latest state to vote on the legalization of sports betting this upcoming November, researchers from the University of Kansas have published new research that demonstrates the impact of sports betting on household finances and families.
UK professor Kevin Pisciotta and his colleagues at the University of Kansas began their research as the gambling industry continues to grow, saying “we did not necessarily expect how much we could identify in the data how hooked some people were”, according to KCUR’s Up To Date.
“[Initially] It was unclear whether most of the growth in sports betting was them expanding their reach among a larger set of the population, or a set of the population that continued to bet more and more. And it seems like it’s just as much the latter as the former.”
“Almost all of our effects are concentrated in those that we would call ‘financially constrained,'” he added. “The median person in that constrained group would have savings around $0 each year. And so they’re naturally running up against these savings constraints already, and they add this additional form of consumption.”
- Dr. Richard Yi, professor of psychology at the University of Kansas and the Director of the Cofrin Logan Center for Addiction Research and Treatment
- Kevin Pisciotta, assistant professor of finance at the University of Kansas School of Business
Dr. Richard Yi researches the psychology behind addiction at the University of Kansas and discussed about the risks of gambling and their potential impacts, and believes that gambling addictions could increase due to the lower barriers of entry and the ease of those who want to place a bet, doing so without having to leave their house.
“We have these natural systems in our brain that signal when something happens, and it’s reinforcing,” Yi said. “So if I like it, it feels good, or takes something bad away.”
“It’s so readily available, the access is significantly increased relative to conventional casino betting,” Yi added.
