$167 Billion Bet on Sports in 2025. The Research on Who Pays Is Brutal.

Turn on any game and you will see it. The odds on the screen. The ads between plays. The “risk-free” bet offers. The celebrity telling you to download the app. In a few short years, sports gambling went from a back-room vice to a sponsored feature of American life.

The money is staggering. According to the American Gaming Association, Americans wagered $166.94 billion on sports through legal commercial operators in 2025, an 11% increase from the year before. Operators kept $16.96 billion of it as revenue, up 22.8%. States collected $3.71 billion in sports betting taxes. American Gaming Association, February 26, 2026.

Those are the industry’s own numbers, and they are worth reading carefully. The “handle” is the total amount bet, not the amount lost. Revenue is what the house keeps after paying winners. Neither number tells you how many people are being harmed. For that, you have to look elsewhere. And what the research shows should give every parent, spouse and lawmaker pause.

What the research found

Since the Supreme Court cleared the way for states to legalize sports betting in 2018, states have rolled it out at different times. That staggered rollout gave economists a natural experiment: compare what happened to people’s finances in states that legalized with those that had not yet.

A team of researchers from UCLA, Harvard and USC examined credit data covering about 7 million Americans. They found that legalizing sports betting in general produced a modest decline in average credit scores, about 0.7 points. But when states allowed online and mobile betting, the decline was much larger: about 12 points. That drop came with increases in bankruptcies, accounts sent to collections, credit card delinquencies and auto loan delinquencies. The authors concluded that “the ease of access to sports gambling — particularly through online and mobile channels — harms consumer financial health by increasing levels of excessive debt.” Hollenbeck, Larsen and Proserpio, SSRN.

A separate study by economists including Scott Baker and colleagues analyzed household transaction records across multiple states. It found that online sports betting legalization led to sharp increases in betting, concentrated among financially vulnerable households. Betting “significantly reduces households’ savings allocations,” the researchers wrote, and among cash-constrained households it was followed by higher credit card debt, less available credit and more frequent overdrafts. Crucially, the betting appeared to be new spending, not a substitute for other gambling. Baker et al., “Gambling Away Stability,” SSRN.

Stateline, which reviewed the research, noted an important counterpoint: at least one survey-based study did not find a significant increase in adverse mental health outcomes, which means the full picture of long-term harm is still being filled in. Stateline, December 5, 2024. That is a fair caveat. But on money, the evidence is consistent: easy mobile access to betting is hurting the finances of the people least able to afford it.

The people calling for help are young

The National Council on Problem Gambling runs the national problem gambling helpline, 1-800-GAMBLER. Its 2025 annual report found the helpline received more than 31,000 contacts a month. Nearly half, 49.5%, came from people ages 18 to 34. Men made up about 70% of contacts. NCPG, May 2026.

Online and app-based gambling rose to 31% of reports, up from 23% in 2024. And the top reason people reached out was money: more than 73% cited financial struggles. About 32% cited mental health concerns, and 22% cited relationship problems.

Put those findings together and a picture emerges. The product is in everyone’s pocket. It is advertised during the live games millions of fans watch. And the people turning up at the helpline are increasingly young, male and in financial trouble.

Why this belongs in the Moral Decay Index

This is not a lecture about gambling being sinful. Adults have the right to make choices with their own money, and most people who bet do so without falling apart.

The moral question is about design and responsibility. For most of American history, gambling was something you had to go somewhere to do. It came with natural friction: travel, time, the walk from the car. Mobile betting removed that friction. It put a casino in a phone that never leaves your hand, available at 2 a.m., tied to your bank account and pushed at you with bonuses engineered to keep you playing.

When a product is built to be used impulsively, advertised during live games, and linked by research to rising debt and bankruptcies, “personal responsibility” cannot be the only answer. Companies that profit from compulsion bear responsibility for how they design and sell. And states that collect billions in tax revenue from these apps bear responsibility for what that revenue costs their residents.

There is also a quieter harm. Sports were one of the last shared spaces in American culture, something families and strangers could enjoy together. When every game becomes a betting opportunity, the game itself becomes a transaction. A missed free throw becomes a lost paycheck.

What would make a difference

Limit the pressure. Restrict “bonus bet” and promotional offers that are designed to hook new users.
Rein in advertising, especially during broadcasts with young audiences.
Build in friction. Deposit limits, cooling-off periods and easy self-exclusion should be defaults, not buried settings.
Fund help at the scale of the revenue. If states collect billions, a meaningful share should go to prevention and treatment.
Talk to the young men in your life. The helpline data says they are the ones calling. Ask how much they bet, and listen without shaming.

If gambling is causing problems for you or someone you love, call the national helpline at 1-800-GAMBLER. It is free and confidential.

The verdict

The industry calls 2025 a record year, and by its own numbers it was. But the research tells a different story about who paid for that record. Easy mobile betting is linked to lower credit scores, more bankruptcies and more debt, and the people seeking help are increasingly young and financially underwater.

A country that turns its favorite pastime into an always-on casino, and then acts surprised when young men go broke, is not showing freedom. It is showing what happens when profit outruns responsibility.

Sources

If this made you angry, good. Now turn it inward. The Moral Consistency Journal is a 30-day audit of the places where your own standards bend. More Case Files and data breakdowns live at themoraldecayindex.com. Books that go deeper are in our Bookshop.org store, which supports independent bookstores.

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