Many of the issues with problem gambling in Europe stem from practices by bookmakers that encourage those who are losing to keep betting and discourage winners. ( 2021) has found that gambling raises the risk of financial distress and lowers health and well-being outcomes and there are active debates about how public policy can reduce gambling-related harm (King & Delfabbro, 2019). Academic research such as Muggleton et al.

A 2021 review of the evidence by Public Health England estimated that one in two hundred of the British adult population had a problem with gambling and about one in twenty five were gambling at levels placing them “at risk”.

While many US states have welcomed the opportunity that legal sports betting gives them for earning additional revenues, the legalization of sports betting and its easy availability via cell phones is also likely to result in a significant increase in problem gambling.

Legalized Sports Betting by States as of June 2022, Blue = Legalized, Red = Not Legalized. 3 An equivalent amount of sports betting per person in the US would see annual totals of about $210 billion, equivalent to about 1% of current GDP or about four times the estimated size of the market in 2021. 2 To give a potential benchmark, in the UK, which has a well-developed sports betting market, the total amounts of betting on sports per year is currently about £36 billion, equivalent to £530 per person. Gambling in these markets is already large, with $136 billion placed in legal sports betting markets since the 2018 Supreme Court ruling but the market seems likely to grow substantially over the next few years. This is an important topical issue because in May 2018, the United States Supreme Court declared the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) to be unconstitutional, thus opening the way for individual states to introduce legislation permitting sports betting.Īs of June 2022, thirty states had legalized sports betting in various forms and other states are likely to follow (see Fig. 1 This paper examines how the current US tax code affects the incentives for taking risk by betting on sports. Research on gambling has also pointed to the role that taxation has played in determining the form and location of betting markets and in affecting the extent of losses experienced by different groups. Classic contributions including Domar and Musgrave ( 1944), Feldstein ( 1969) and Poterba ( 2002). It is well known that the tax treatment of investment gains and losses can have an important effect on risk-taking decisions.

Irs raises gambling winning reporting