With human costs of gambling mounting in Ohio, more are seeking help
Since online sports gambling became legal in Ohio in 2023, sports scandals have been mounting. Getting less attention is the human toll, which has grown rapidly.
With the stress of the holidays — and college and professional football playoffs — approaching, a Columbus-based clinician said it’s important to understand when gambling passes from being simple fun to a real problem.
Kelley Breidigan is an assistant clinical professor at Ohio State’s College of Social Work. She said that measures of problem gambling have been on the rise in all 38 states that have legalized online sports betting.
“Most folks are assigning this to the Supreme Court decision in 2018 that allowed states to legalize and regulate sports betting,” she said.
“With that legalization, what we’re starting to see is that as online betting increased, it coincided with record-breaking demand for help for gambling addiction.”
The costs of problem gambling can be demonstrated several ways. For example, people’s financial health has deteriorated in a big way.
The UCLA Anderson School of Management in April reported that entire states’ average credit scores took a hit when sports betting was legalized. That’s not just the average credit scores of gamblers, but of everybody in the state.
“Our main finding is that overall consumers’ financial health is modestly deteriorating as the average credit score in states with legalized sports gambling decreases by roughly 0.8 points,” the report said.
“When states introduce access to online sports gambling, average credit scores decline by nearly three times as much (2.75 points). The decline in credit score is associated with changes in indicators of excessive debt.”
Not surprisingly, the researchers also found an increase in other, more serious problems.
“We find a substantial increase in average bankruptcy rates, debt sent to collections, use of debt consolidation loans, and auto loan delinquencies,” the UCLA report said.
“Together, these results indicate that the ease of access to sports gambling is harming consumer financial health by increasing their level of debt.”
In Connecticut, 12.4% of lottery revenue and 51% of sports betting revenue comes from about 2% of people with severe gambling addiction, a 2024 report from Gemini Research shows.
Amid accusations that big-time players are rigging at least parts of games, Gov. Mike DeWine last month told the Associated Press that he regrets signing Ohio’s sports betting law.
He’s taken steps to limit bets on minor aspects of games — or “prop” bets — that seem particularly prone to abuse.
Speaking of the gambling companies, DeWine referred to “the deep, deep, deep pockets they have to advertise and do everything they can to get someone to place that bet…” the AP reported.
Breidigan, the Ohio State clinician, said that marketing sends the message that sports betting is a normal, safe activity.
Indeed, watch any sports broadcast and you’re likely to see Kevin Hart and LeBron James laughing it up as they promote the Draft Kings betting platform.
Breidigan said such promotion and the ease of betting via cell phone have mainlined gambling to a huge new audience.
“This was always relegated to the fringes of society — people who had gambling issues. What this did is completely normalize gambling,” she said.
“It made it so easy for people to just pick up their phone and make a bet. That has had a severe impact on individuals and families.”
In addition to deteriorating finances, other social costs are mounting.
There are an estimated 255,000 problem gamblers in Ohio. And the United Way of Greater Cleveland reported a 277% increase in gambling-related calls to its helpline in the first month of legalized sports betting when compared to a year earlier.
Even though legalized gambling creates a stream tax revenue, it’s still a losing bet in terms of public policy, the peer-reviewed journal Public Health reported in October 2024.
It cited studies in Sweden and France finding that the social costs of gambling outweighed the taxes it generated.
And, as people develop gambling problems, they can face catastrophic personal consequences, the report said.
“Rates of attempted suicide and suicidal ideation are much higher among individuals with serious gambling problems and/or clinically diagnosed Gambling Disorder than among the general population,” it said.
“Rates of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts have been found to be even higher among individuals in treatment for Gambling Disorder: as high as 81.4% for suicidal ideation and 30.2% for suicide attempts in the past 12 months.”
Breidigan said that it’s important to understand that problem gambling functions in ways similar to problems with substances.
“What I think a lot of people don’t realize is that gambling actually stimulates the brain’s reward system just like drugs or alcohol,” she said.
“The way our brains are set up, once it acclimates to a certain activity or substance or whatever it is, it needs more to get the same kind of dopamine hit to get that feel-good response.”
The reasons some people might be more prone to problem gambling than others can vary.
Bipolar and obsessive-compulsive disorders as well as depression might underlie a gambling problem. But so can many other things, Breidigan said.
It’s important to recognize when gambling goes from being an amusement to something more.
That’s when people “develop an incredible preoccupation with gambling. They’re constantly thinking about it. They’re planning it. There are increased bets… You’ll see them where they’re chasing losses — they’re trying to win back that money that they lost,” Breidigan said.
As with other addictions, problem gambling often reaches a point where it damages families.
“A lot of times we see a lot of lying that really affects the family and friends because they’re hiding the extent of the losses that they have,” Breidigan said.
“There’s a huge issue where they’re borrowing money. They’ve got unpaid bills. They’re selling possessions so that they can keep funding their gambling.”
As with other forms of addiction, help is available for problem gamblers. Breitigan said it’s important for people to get over their embarrassment, and understand that they’re far from alone.
She said a good place to begin seeking help is the Ohio problem gambling helpline.
“There are some people who try very hard, but despite their best efforts, they’re still engaging in this harmful behavior,” Breitigan said.
“Oftentimes it’s friends and family saying, ‘You need help.’ If you’re hearing those sorts of things, or thinking about them yourself, it’s probably a good idea to talk to someone. The job of a mental health professional is not to shame. There’s absolutely no point in that.”
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