04-08-2025
Sports betting brought trouble for gamblers, not jobs for Mass., UMass research finds
SPRINGFIELD — More Massachusetts gamblers are reporting harm to their personal lives than before sports betting was legalized in the Bay State.
That's negative repercussions to financial status, health, emotional and physical well-being, family and relationships, work and school performance, according to research detailed Thursday by gambling behavior expert Rachel Volberg, a research professor of epidemiology in the University of Massachusetts Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences.
'The main thing that changed between 2022 and 2024 was the introduction of sports betting,' Volberg said in an interview. 'We can't prove causation. We certainly can say there is a correlation.'
Researchers called for harm reduction measures, like education and more awareness efforts, as well as budgeting tools.
At the same time, sports betting is not driving economic growth, according to her fellow UMass economists who, like Volberg, work in the Social and Economic Impacts of Gambling in Massachusetts research team at the Donahue Institute in Hadley.
Both SEIGMA teams presented their intertwined findings Thursday to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission.
Ninety-five percent of sports gaming is done online. That means fewer economic ripples in the real world. Sports betting has generated just 118 jobs in the state since online and in-person sports books opened in 2023, UMass researchers said.
There are 5,341 jobs generated by the three casinos: MGM Springfield, Encore Boston Harbor and Plainridge Park. MGM accounts for 1,562 employees alone.
MGM's Springfield Sportsbook employs 13, according to the casino's most recent report to the Gaming Commission.
Economists found that sports betting reallocated $333 million a year in betting away from casinos and into sports books, costing jobs at the resorts.
Volberg said she and the social impact team track reactions from gamblers since 2013, surveying about 1,500 of them at any given time.
The project, funded by the Gaming Commission, gives her insight into changes in gambling behavior over time.
'Between 2022 and 2023, we saw a decline in the proportion of monthly gamblers who believed that all types of gambling should be legal and a small increase in the proportion who believed that all types of gambling should be illegal,' she said.
Rates of those reporting harm in the area of finances rose from 18% in 2022 to 25% in fall 2024, and harmed family or relationships went from 13.9% to 27.2% in the same time period.
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