NPR

Gambling Addiction Researchers Wary Amid Supreme Court OK'ing Legal Sports Betting

Problem gambling is already impacting an estimated 2 million Americans a year.
The Race & Sports SuperBook at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino before 400 proposition bets for Super Bowl LI between the Atlanta Falcons and the New England Patriots were posted on Jan. 26, 2017 in Las Vegas. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Gambling addiction researchers are concerned about a potential rise in problem gamblers, following the U.S. Supreme Court striking down a 1992 federal law that prevented states from permitting sports betting.

Here & Now‘s Robin Young speaks with Lia Nower (@KnowDice), director of the Center For Gambling Studies at Rutgers University, and Michael Burke, who was addicted to gambling and is now executive director of the Michigan Association on Problem Gambling.

Nower’s found that most sports betters in New Jersey — the state that — are 18 to 34 years old, half of them gamble once a week or more and almost two-thirds of them are at high risk of becoming addicted.

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