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Researchers say legalized sports betting tied to small but measurable declines in consumer financial health, larger where mobile betting allowed
Summary
Three academic studies presented to the Minnesota Senate Finance Committee found modest statewide declines in credit scores, increases in bankruptcies and debt sent to collections after sports betting legalization — with larger effects in states that allow online/mobile betting.
Three researchers testified to the Minnesota Senate Finance Committee on May 20 that the spread of legal sports betting is associated with measurable negative effects on household financial health, and that the effects are larger in states that allow online or mobile wagering.
Professor Brett Hollenbeck of UCLA told the committee he and co‑authors used a 2016–2023 sample drawn from the University of California Consumer Credit Panel and found “evidence that legal sports betting decreases consumer financial health across a range of different indicators with the much larger impacts coming from the ability to place bets online or through mobile apps” (citation: transcript). Hollenbeck said the average credit‑score decline across the full population in treated states was small (about one percent, roughly seven points) but that the effect was roughly three times larger in states allowing…
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