Is legalized sports betting making sports and society worse? What new poll shows

Once upon a time, bettors had to get creative when the sports calendar went quiet. Office pools, backyard games, maybe even who could down a hot dog the fastest — anything was fair game when the action slowed.

Now, with sports betting legal across much of the country, there’s no shortage of wagers to place.

But the boom is starting to raise more eyebrows than excitement.

In a new poll conducted by Pew Research Center, Americans’ view of legalized sports betting has shifted slightly in the past three years, with pollers leaning more toward the idea that it’s bad for both society and sports.

“Today, 43% of U.S. adults say the fact that sports betting is now legal in much of the country is a bad thing for society. That’s up from 34% in 2022. And 40% of adults now say it’s a bad thing for sports, up from 33%,” the Pew Research Center said.

Pew’s survey was conducted from July 8 to Aug. 3 and polled 9,916 adults. It has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 1.3 percentage points.

Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association

Earlier this year, JAMA Internal Medicine found there is a growing health concern regarding gambling addiction following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision (Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association) to allow legalized sports betting outside of Nevada in 2017 — which could possibly serve as a connection to society’s growing awareness of the perceived unhealthy aspects surrounding sports betting.

Operational sportsbooks went from just one state in 2018 to 38 in 2024. Wagers increased from “$4.9 billion in 2017 to $121.1 billion in 2023,” JAMA said.

That being said, 22% of adults say they’ve personally bet money on sports during 2025, growing slightly from 19% in 2022, studies find.

Young Americans and sports gambling

In February, the American Institute for Boys and Men published a research paper about the financial impact of sports betting on young men and how it’s leading to more harm than good.

Of men under 45, negative impacts across the board in states that allowed legalized sports betting in 2018, according to research, include:

• Credit scores down by 0.3% 
• Bankruptcy rates up 25-30%
• Debt collection increase by 8%
• Debt consolidation loans up by 10%
• Auto loan delinquencies increase by 9%
• Secured to unsecured credit usage increase by 4%
• Credit card limit reduce by 3%

In the newest study, 47% of men under 30 say legalized sports betting is bad for society, a leap from 22% in 2022. Young women have also viewed it as negative, jumping from 25% in 2022 to 35%, Pew Research said.

Is sports betting harming games themselves?

Bad news for Tennessee Titans had coach Brian Callahan if he’s betting that he’ll have an NFL coaching job come Week 6.

Good news if you’re an NBA referee time traveling from 2002.

“The role that sports leagues have played in integrating with sports betting is an indictment unto itself. But there is a darker undercurrent that suggests sports themselves may end up regretting their union with their onetime scourge,” the National Review said in August.

When some people say the quiet part out loud, teams will start questioning the authenticity of an athlete’s game, according to the publication.

“On the professional level, coaches and athletes alike can now invite suspicion about whether they are altering their performances for the sake of some wager, either for themselves or for some predesignated beneficiary,” the national review noted.

“This concern is sometimes vindicated.”

This includes cases like Jontay Porter, a former NBA player who officials say bet on his own games during his time with the Toronto Raptors, and Tucupita Marcano, a former San Diego Padres infielder who the MLB said placed bets on his previous team, the Pittsburgh Pirates.

This doesn’t include players like Pete Rose, who was permanently banned from baseball in 1989 for sports gambling.

It also can mess with the emotional and mental health of professional and college athletes when they receive threatening messages from fans who have placed bets on their performances.