Gambling addiction in the U.S. is becoming a fully fledged crisis and “demands a public health response,” activists have warned.
“We’re seeing the evidence everywhere,” Harry Levant, director of gambling policy at the Public Health Advocacy Institute, told The Guardian. “The harm that is taking place to people, young men, families, people of all ages, it is simply out of control.”
Levant notes the rapid expansion of online gambling markets and other platforms, including wager sites such as Polymarket and Kalshi, which have increased significantly in popularity in recent months.
Last year, a study by Siena College Research Institute and St. Bonaventure University’s Jandoli School of Communication found that 48 percent of men aged 18 to 49 had an account with at least one sports betting platform.
Levant told the outlet that gambling should be treated like other addictive things, such as alcohol or drugs.
“You regulate the distribution, the speed, the type, the access to the product, because the product is what’s dangerous,” he said. “The problem is the product, not the people. We have a crisis here.”
Global experts in gambling addiction gathered in Boston on Friday for a conference intending to highlight the problems of and push for better regulation of the industry.
However, Levant insisted that “this is not an anti-gambling conference” and that it was “a pro-public health symposium with real solutions.”
He continued: “There’s a need to demonstrate – both to the people of America, and the political leaders in America – that there is a problem.
“And we know what the cause of the problem is: the cause of the problem is the unregulated nature of a dangerously and effectively designed online gambling product.”
The significant shift in online gambling has been observed since the lifting of a federal sports betting ban by the Supreme Court in 2018. Sports betting has since been legalized in 39 states, as well as Washington, D.C.
More recently, the use of prediction market sites – where users can bet on everything, including global geopolitical events – has also exploded, driven in part by Donald Trump’s involvement overseas. More than $1 billion was traded on Kalshi during Super Bowl Sunday, according to The Guardian.
