US gambling crisis feared as online betting rises
sports betting.
Asher, who asked that the Thomson Reuters Foundation use a pseudonym to protect the privacy of his recovery group, was drawn into gambling by online poker.
«It is just so easy to open these gambling accounts online,» he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. «At one point I lost over $500,000 to this addiction and almost lost my family.»
Dr Timothy Fong, co-director of the Gambling Studies Program at UCLA, said clinics used to be inundated with older people who had lost their savings at casinos, or were addicted to slot machines.
But these days it is young men, hooked on online gambling, risky crypto and stock trading, and increasingly online sports betting.
«Everything has changed,» he said. «We are in the second inning of a gambling crisis. We don't know… if it could be an opioid-crisis level.»
The U.S. Supreme Court transformed online gambling in 2018, striking down a national prohibition on sports betting.
Since then, 38 states and the District of Columbia have legalized sports betting, according to the American Gaming Association, an industry group, bringing in more than $11 billion in revenue to the sector last year.
The ability to tax such new revenue streams is enticing for state and city officials dealing with post-pandemic economic upheaval, said Richard C. Auxier, principle policy associate with the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, a think tank.
«You'll hear people say things like, 'this will pay for schools',» he said. «Politicians are purposefully saying, 'we won't need to raise
