The study, which was released Tuesday (23rd July), revealed that 96 percent of the respondents lost money. Lower-income players were also more irresponsible with their gambling expenditures than high-income gamers.
Researchers from the Rand School of Management at UC-San Diego examined gambling behavior and its impact on jurisdictions as well as individuals. According to the study, states that legalize online gambling see increased revenues and have more funds to spend on problem gambling programs. A legal gambling market also helps limit illegal betting.
Gambling is not only a losing proposition for the consumer, but it can also have life-changing effects. Researchers found that online casinos induced more “irresponsible behaviour” than online betting.
The authors write: “On the negative side, greater accessibility and participation may lead to an increase in problematic gambling behavior.”
Online gambling tracking habits
Data from 250,000 Canadian online gambling users revealed that 43 percent of them spend more than the 1% recommended by experts on their wage. Moreover, 5,3% of online gamblers spend over 10% and 3.2% more than 15%.
This study was conducted over a five-year period, between 2019 and 2023. Potential gamblers identified through consumer credit card purchases. Online sports betting downloads (OSB) grew by 33 million during that period. Researchers tracked consumers who made their first deposit or withdrawal from gambling accounts. Researchers monitored 41 gambling websites.
The data are not as detailed. While researchers were able to track bettors’ spending over a period of a year or a month, the method did allow them to estimate how much they spent. The data was insufficient to tell if the deposits were for digital sports betting, daily fantasy or online gambling. Researchers could also not determine the “intensity or frequency” of gambling.
The researchers did not collect any other demographic data besides income and expenditure habits. As expected, the online gamblers studied earn more than average Americans. The study found that the average US household earns $106,400, while online gambling has a median income of $130 096.
OSB Transaction Habits Revealed
The findings include:
- Average bettors made 21 transactions, 18 of them were deposits
- Average deposit amount was $1375
- Average withdrawal is $742
- DraftKings, FanDuel and TVG are the two largest operators in terms of US deposits. BetMGM, BetRivers, and TVG completed the top five.
- Bets between 2019 and 23 have grown 14-fold in value
- The taxable revenues during the period of study grew by 18-fold
- Researchers also looked at suicide statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and National Council for Problem Gambling. Researchers wrote that it’s not surprising to see an increase in gambling-related calls as more states begin to legalise internet gambling. Researchers did not observe a rise in suicides, saying that “none [of the] time series shows unusual increases visually corresponding to OSB date changes.”
- According to research, calls to hotlines began to increase dramatically in 2021. In that year, digital sports betting was launched in five states including Michigan (the 10th largest US state by populations) and Arizona (the biggest legal betting state west). Five more states, including New York, will be online in 2022.
