Topline
Online sports bettors spend more, place riskier bets, save less money for the future and are more likely to fall behind on bills than their counterparts who gamble only at casinos or racetracks, a new Urban Institute report released Thursday shows, a gap that is driving a new wave of state and federal regulatory proposals.
Key Facts
The survey, which compared the betting habits and financial outcomes of more than 320 online and in-person sports bettors, found that online gamblers had bet more frequently, spent more money over the previous 12 months and were more likely to have placed high-risk bets.
Online gamblers reported they’d faced greater financial challenges in the prior 12 months than in-person bettors, were 15 times more likely to report having missed a bill payment than in-person bettors, and were twice as likely to say they have saved less money than they otherwise would have.
A significant minority of sports gamblers of both types (12%) reported they have saved less money than they would have if they were not gambling and that behavior was more likely to be reported among sports bettors with low incomes (below $50,000) and young gamblers (ages 18 to 29).
While most sports bettors gamble relatively infrequently, online gamblers bet much more often—7% reported betting daily (compared to 0%) of in-person bettors), 28% said they bet weekly and 23% said they bet monthly.
More than two-thirds (67%) of sports gamblers say they primarily gamble to win money despite other studies showing the vast majority of people do not make money betting on sports and most lose an average of 7.5 cents for every dollar wagered.
BIG NUMBER
Less than $100. That’s how much a majority of sports bettors (55%) say they bet on sports in the 12 months prior to being surveyed. A sizable minority (11%) said they have bet more than $1,000 in the past year.
SURPRISING FACT
The most common type of sports bet is a single-game bet on the outcome of a game or match—71% of sports bettors say they’ve placed one in the last year. Other popular types of bets include parlays, prop bets, live bets and futures bets.
key background
Sports betting has expanded rapidly since the Supreme Court cleared the way for state-level legalization in 2018, and Americans spent $167 billion on bets last year compared to $57 billion in 2021. Policymakers are now considering tightening restrictions on gambling at both the state and federal levels. Sens. Adam Schiff (D-Cali) and John Curtis (R-Utah) introduced bipartisan legislation in March that would ban prediction markets from processing sports-related wagers (because prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi don’t currently have to adhere to state and tribal consumer protections around sports betting), and states including Illinois, Massachusetts and Minnesota have moved to regulate or have already passed bills covering sports betting on prediction markets. Several states are also considering tightening traditional sports betting rules: Kentucky has passed a law raising the minimum betting age from 18 to 21, New Jersey has weighed eliminating in-game and micro wagers and Ohio has considered a $100 bet cap alongside a ban on mobile sports betting apps.
