Researchers say the latest numbers on problem gambling in Massachusetts should give policymakers pause before they approve any more betting options.
In online surveys, researchers based at UMass Amherst have tracked gambling behavior among people who gamble regularly — and found their rate of problem gambling went from 12% in 2014, before casinos opened, to 25% in 2023, after sports betting was legalized.
“The proportion of people who gamble that heavily may be small in the general population, but more of them are experiencing gambling problems,” lead researcher Rachel Volberg said.
“It definitely gives you an idea of where you need to concentrate your resources,” she said. “People who engage in three to six types of gambling a month, that's where you want to aim your resources and hopefully change their behavior.”
Volberg said it’s likely the widespread availability of sports betting from home — via computer and phone — has contributed significantly to harmful gambling behavior. Survey results also suggest that a lull in gambling activity due to pandemic is mostly over.
State-funded research into gambling harms was required by Massachusetts' 2011 expanded gaming legislation, although officials say the scope of research has shrunk over time, partly due to a lack of funding. A cohort study that followed the same people over time ended in 2019, before sports betting was legalized.
Volberg said the online “panel surveys,” which focus on heavy gamblers, are quicker and less expensive than the more complex research studies that look at gambling activity across the general population.
And while the online surveys have a narrower reach, “based on this sort of early-warning system, it does appear that things are going in the wrong direction, frankly,” she said. “So efforts to minimize and mitigate [problems] need to not wait for another general population survey to confirm it.”
In addition to gambling behavior, the newest survey also looked at attitudes and beliefs around gambling and found much more negativity than in previous versions. In 2023, about a third of heavy gamblers themselves said they think betting is too widely available.
“If you're a legislator in Massachusetts and you're looking at data that suggests overall attitudes about the availability of gambling are increasingly negative,” Volberg said, “you would want to be very careful about introducing any other new forms of gambling, given that people were not feeling very welcoming about it.”
In particular, she said legislators should think hard before legalizing online casino gambling, as a handful of other states have done.
Volberg also recommends gambling regulators consider using methods to limit how much people can bet, like requiring people to set budgets before they start gambling, which have been successful in other countries.
“I think there's always ways to put guardrails and safety belts and better brakes on the system,” she said.
