Introduction
Gambling in sports involves wagering money on various sporting activities like soccer, horse racing, and basketball. It is done by predicting the outcome of several sporting events and placing money on the outcome to occur or not occur. Although traditional sports betting methods mainly involved predicting winners or losers in sports contests, modern sport betting techniques have evolved to include several options like winning margins, handicaps, and the number of goals or any other outcomes provided by commercial gambling providers. Notably, people turn to sports gambling as a way to socialize, cope with stress (from the excitement of taking risks), or due to the adrenaline rush to win money. However, sports gambling behavior can get out of control, leading to addiction and compulsive gambling, in which players begin chasing lost bets and continue with a losing streak. Also, the internet has played a critical role in increasing access to sports gambling by enabling players to access betting platforms from any place with an internet connection. Besides, the internet has increased the number of underage youths participating in illegal sports gambling due to the anonymity provided by the internet. Concerns regarding problem gambling and underage gamblers have increased significantly with the internet because most online gambling platforms rely on registrants to disclose their responsible gambling behaviors and ages. Consequently, several states have made significant efforts to regulate or prohibit Internet gambling through collaboration with commercial gambling providers and online money providers. This paper explores the history and contemporary issues of sports gambling by examining the challenges posed by sports gambling, its impacts on society, possible solutions, and impactful recommendations to inform policy formulation or legal application. The paper also examines the existing literature about sports gambling by reviewing reliable literature sources and elaborating on the phenomena. Although sports gambling affects society and sports in several ways, a transparent and properly regulated sports gambling industry provides opportunities for the government to control illegal forms of sports betting and generate significant revenue for federal and state governments.
The Issue
The history of gambling in sports can be traced to the ancient Greeks and Romans, making sports gambling one of the oldest forms of gambling in the world. According to Vamplew (2022), the ancient Romans and Greeks gambled on various forms of sport, such as animal fights, chariot races, and gladiator games. From the ancient Roman Empire, Gambling continued to spread across Europe and other parts of the world, especially in the medieval ages when cock-fighting, wrestling, and bullbaiting became popular. Other forms of sports like boxing, horse racing, and team-oriented sporting activities like soccer and rugby grew in popularity in the 16th century, increasing avenues for gambling in sports. Notably, the European settlers in the US brought introduced sports gambling behavior in the country, making popular sports like horse racing an integral part of American culture. However, in early 1900, most forms of gambling in sports were illegalized in the US, leading to the rise of illegal gambling and organized crimes. As a result, many states responded to illegal sports betting activities and betting-related organized crimes by introducing tightly regulated and licensed sports betting from the 1950s to the early 2000s. Today, most US citizens access offshore sports betting platforms and local commercial gambling providers in states that legalize online sports betting, making the US sports betting industry a multi-billion sector with significant tax revenues for the government.
One of the primary challenges posed by sports betting is gambling addiction or compulsive gambling. The rapid expansion of online sports gambling has made it more accessible to many users, making it difficult for people to avoid compulsive gambling. This leads to gambling disorder which exacerbates mental health symptoms for at-risk populations such as unemployed young male adults. Besides the negative psychological and social outcomes, another challenge posed by sports betting is financial challenges and bankruptcy in extreme situations. People with gambling debts experience difficulties in affording proper housing, servicing loans, or providing for their families. In addition, people with problematic gambling are disproportionately vulnerable to other psychological conditions like substance dependence and abuse, further exacerbating mental and physical health.
At the societal level, the impacts of gambling in sports are diverse and severe. For instance, due to its adverse psychological impacts, unregulated sports gambling encourages crime, violence, and weak familial bond (strained relationships). This implies that sports betting increases mental health burdens for society by increasing the number of mental health patients. Additionally, sports gambling impacts society by limiting the productivity of society members. For instance, children are more likely to develop into pathological gamblers in societies where sports gambling is unregulated. However, well-regulated and transparent sports gambling benefits society by providing employment opportunities and revenues to the government in the form of taxes. Sports gambling can benefit society by driving investment and stimulating economic growth. For instance, cities with active but regulated sports gambling, like New York, Las Vegas, and New Jersey, have a high demand for hotel services and high-quality amenities. Similarly, sports gambling has a positive and negative influences on sports. The primary positive contribution of sports gambling on sports is sponsorship (through commercial betting platforms), which provides funds for local clubs to develop infrastructure. Another benefit of sports gambling to sports is the enhanced entertainment value by increasing integrity and transparency in sports by providing additional scrutiny over betting lines and decisions made by game officials. However, sports betting affects sports by increasing corrupt activities in sports through match-fixing.
One of the possible solutions to address the adverse impacts of betting is to control access to betting platforms and avenues. Technological advancements enable proper identification methods like the know-your-customer (KYC) service, which verifies users’ identities before granting access to online betting platforms. The service leverages artificial intelligence methods like facial recognition and liveness detection to deny access to ineligible users like underage players and criminals seeking anonymity. Additionally, the government can address the challenge of the unregulated sports gambling industry by creating a state-owned gambling monopoly to ensure consistency in control and policy applications. Another effective solution is to limit the time and money gamblers can spend per session to prevent addiction and gambling disorders.
Literature Review
The sports gambling industry has evolved into a highly differentiated and profitable sector with several established sports betting platforms and regulators. According to Regan et al. (2022), the rapid expansion and successive advancements in the sports gambling sector have led to an increase in the population of gamblers, and the social, health, and economic harms are spreading. However, Regan et al. (2022) point out that a blanket ban on sports gambling is an ineffective solution because it would increase the number of illegal and under-the-counter betting avenues, opening doors to other criminal activities like money laundering. Additionally, imposing a blanket ban on gambling on sports would render people working in sports and gambling platforms jobless, limit governments’ tax revenues from sports gambling, and impact sports organizations financially due to the sponsorship from commercial betting providers (Regan et al., 2022). As a result, Regan et al. (2022) proposed several policies to enhance transparency and more regulation in the sports gambling industry to establish a balance that would benefit all sports gambling stakeholders. One of the effective strategies proposed by Regan et al. (2022) is to limit the number of betting accounts that online sports gamblers operate and the amount of time and money gamblers spend on sports betting. Additionally, the government should introduce public health licensing objectives to ensure that all commercial sports betting platforms take impactful measures to ensure the health and responsible gambling behavior among their customers (Regan et al., 2022). Thus, based on Regan et al.’s (2022) argument, the government should formulate effective strategies that limit people’s access to sports gambling platforms and create laws that protect public health to reduce gambling harm rather than imposing a blanket ban on sports gambling.
Similarly, Gainsbury et al. (2018) point out that governments should increase their focus on enhancing wellness-oriented interventions as part of the integral strategies for controlling gambling in sports. Precisely, the researchers emphasize the role of awareness campaigns and player education programs as effective methods of ensuring that sports gamblers are in control of their health, money, and social relationships. In this regard, message framing and content of responsible gambling messages should include steps pathological gamblers can follow to avoid addiction and contacts for support (Gainsbury, 2018). Auxier (2019) point out that banning sports gambling in the US for many decades was ineffective because many Americans used illegal bookies and illegitimate offshore accounts to place bets, leading to revenue loss to the government because the federal or state government does not tax the offshore sport betting platforms. As a result, the US Supreme Court overturned the federal government’s ban on states’ authorization of sports gambling to allow states to create policies that regulate the activity and benefit from the potential tax revenue (Auxier, 2019). Auxier (2019) further points out that extreme measures such as setting a sports gambling tax rate too high can encourage illegal sports betting, thus leading to adverse health effects for citizens and depressing state tax revenues. Notably, this argument is consistent with Regan et al.’s (2022) assertion that imposing rules to severely restrict sports gambling would only foster illegal gambling and open the door to gambling-related illegal activities. Thus, based on these arguments, the government should focus on creating policies to enhance public awareness through education campaigns, limit access to sports gambling and impose moderate restrictions that do not encourage illegal sports gambling or limit regulation of the industry.
Hakansson and Widinghoff (2021) performed a study to evaluate government interventions to control sports gambling during the pandemic period and establish that individuals with intense sports gambling patterns initiate new gambling types whenever government imposes any unfavorable restriction on sports gambling activities. Notably, this revelation indicates the significant challenges that governments face in regulating sports gambling and emphasizes the need to focus on the individual groups with problematic gambling through education and awareness that promote positive attitudes. Parker (2019) argues that sports gambling has been prevalent in the US despite decades of restriction and extreme control measures. The advent of contemporary sports gambling emerged in the US in the early 1900s, coinciding with professional sporting activities like soccer and basketball (Parker, 2019). However, since there were no legal sports betting platforms, most Americans placed illegal bets on sporting activities through illegal sports gambling houses or bookies (Parker, 2019). Notably, the flourishing of illegal sports betting in the US led to several unethical practices and corruption scandals in the US major sporting activities like the Black Box Scandal and the Pete Rose scandal in the late 1980s drew national attention to illegal betting (Parker, 2019). Thus, the reviewed literature suggests that blanket bans or extreme restrictions only foster the growth of illegal sports gambling and gambling-related crimes.
Recommendations
Based on the literature research, the first recommendation for future practice is for governments to focus more on spreading awareness, education, and transparency in sports gambling matters. This recommendation would discourage people from participating in irresponsible gambling by enabling them to make informed decisions about the issue. Additionally, the research suggests that governments should limit blanket bans or extreme restrictions like high tax rates on sports gambling because such measures only foster the growth of illegal gambling and gambling-related criminal activities like money laundering. Finally, the research suggests that governments should focus on restricting access to online gambling platforms to prevent gambling disorders and underage users from accessing the platforms. These recommendations are relevant to gambling individuals, commercial betting providers, and state and federal governments because they are the most influential stakeholders in the sports gambling industry.
Conclusion
Gambling in sports is gaining ostensible popularity and unlimited access due to technological advancements like smartphones and the internet. However, the widespread adoption of sports gambling leads to problems like poor mental health due to gambling addiction and substance abuse, adverse financial outcomes from poor spending behaviors, and an increase in underage gamblers due to the anonymity provided by the internet. As a result, state and federal governments have responded to the issue by imposing stricter anti-gambling laws like high tax rates. The research suggests that such extreme restrictions only foster the development of crime syndicates and illegal sports gambling avenues, leading to severe sports gambling outcomes in society like increased crime. Also, the development of illegal sports gambling avenues limits tax revenues for the state governments. This study proposes that federal and state governments should focus on increasing awareness, education, and transparency in sports gambling to encourage people to make informed decisions. Also, governments should collaborate with commercial sports gambling platforms to restrict access and control the amount of money and time people spend on sports betting.
References
Auxier, R. C. (2019). States Learn to Bet on Sports: The Prospects and Limitations of Taxing Legal Sports Gambling. Washington, DC: Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.
Gainsbury, S. M., Abarbanel, B. L., Philander, K. S., & Butler, J. V. (2018). Strategies to customize responsible gambling messages: a review and focus group study. BMC public health, 18, 1-11.
Håkansson, A., & Widinghoff, C. (2021). Changes of gambling patterns during COVID-19 in Sweden, and potential for preventive policy changes. A second look nine months into the pandemic. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(5), 2342.
Porter, R. (2019). Regulated Sports Betting: Ohio’s Chance to Take a Bet on Itself. Clev. St. L. Rev., 67, 267.
Regan, M., Smolar, M., Burton, R., Clarke, Z., Sharpe, C., Henn, C., & Marsden, J. (2022). Policies and interventions to reduce harmful gambling: an international Delphi consensus and implementation rating study. The Lancet Public Health, 7(8), e705-e717.
Vamplew, W. (2022). Bread and Circuses, Olive Oil and Money: Commercialised Sport in Ancient Greece and Rome. The International Journal of the History of Sport, 39(6), 589-608.
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