Sports Gambling Not Harmless

To the editor:

In the last six years, 38 states and D.C. have legalized sports gambling. Did it matter? “The rise of sports gambling has caused a wave of financial and familial misery, one that falls disproportionately on the most economically precarious households,” answered Charles Fain Lehman in The Atlantic.

Studies reveal increased financial hardships associated with sports betting and even an increased likelihood of domestic violence. “Because of the studies’ design, these results reveal what sports gambling causes, not merely what it correlates with. And the numbers they reveal are of course not only numbers but human lives. Sports gambling is addictive; although many people can do just a little of it, some keep playing compulsively, well past the point of no return. This yields not only debt and bankruptcy but emotional instability and even violence. The problems don’t stop there: Gambling addiction has been connected to anxiety, depression, and even suicide. … If the states are ‘laboratories of democracy,’ then the results of their experiment with sports gambling are in, and they are uniformly negative. Better to end the study now than prolong the suffering.”

People just don’t want to believe this. The Texas Lottery will not make you rich or pay all the cost of Texas schools. Legalizing sports gambling is not “harmless fun” or “just recognizing reality.” The house gets rich and the suckers get hurt.

Larry Jackson La Grange