Mobile sports betting became available to New Yorkers in January 2022 and has since exploded in popularity, especially among young adults.
It’s clear that mobile sports betting is a more sinister form of gambling for young adults due to the accessibility and ease of which one can become addicted.
The mobile sports gambling industry is still in the early stages of development. New York must listen to the experts trying to warn the public of the youth gambling crisis, or else, young adults might have to pay the price.
Anyone with a phone can participate in sports betting, based on the wording of the law.
Although the law says one must be at least 21 years old to bet on sports games, it hasn’t stopped those that are younger from lying about their age to create accounts.
Ninety percent of high school students surveyed by the New York Council on Problem Gambling said they had gambled at least once in the past year.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, younger individuals are particularly susceptible to developing addictive behaviors because the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for rational decision-making, isn’t fully developed until a person is around 26 years old.
That’s why it’s so hard to end habits acquired during high school, making mobile sports gambling uniquely built to target vulnerable high school students.
If age restrictions are loosely enforced, they won’t stop risk-seeking teens from indulging in these behaviors. As these teens enter college, these problems will only compound, as learned habits will urge them to continue gambling.
It’s concerning for institutions like Baruch College and other CUNYs that generally accept lower-income students, with almost half of CUNY’s students coming from households earning less than $20,000. Many students choose Baruch because of its affordability.
Unfortunately, one of the ways some students try to make money is through sports gambling.
On average, people with lower income have been found to spend more on gambling than those with higher income. It’s tempting for those who don’t have many means, but it usually ends in failure.
Statistics show that all the money these companies make is taken out of the pockets of addicted gamblers. Addiction researchers, who are becoming increasingly worried for young New Yorkers, revealed that mobile sports betting has surpassed casino gambling as the top reason for calls to the state’s hotline.
These people are aware that they have a problem, but with their obsession available on their phone, it makes it that much harder to resist. It seems inevitable that this trend will only worsen, as New York is the leading state in mobile sports betting, earning $1.7 billion in gross gaming revenue.
A New York bill to legalize full-functional casino apps was recently introduced.
Although it did not pass this year’s legislative session, it’s likely that another attempt will be made in the future.
