Sports Betting: Risks & Ripple Effects Teach-Out

Michelle Malkin discusses gambling behavior and the associated harms and risks emerging within today's sports betting landscape.

Takeaways: Gambling-Related Crime and Punishment

We have prepared a list of key points from the Gambling-Related Crime and Punishment interview for your reference:

1. Emerging adults face elevated and often invisible gambling risks. Individuals ages 18–24 are neurologically and developmentally more prone to risk-taking, impulsivity, and lower harm perception. The rapid expansion of online sports betting, cryptocurrency trading, and in-game purchases intersects with this developmental window, increasing vulnerability at a life stage when financial independence and identity formation are still evolving.

2. Traditional gambling screening tools are outdated for today’s betting landscape. Many young people do not label sports betting, crypto speculation, loot boxes, or prediction-style wagers as “gambling.” As a result, commonly used screening instruments significantly underdetect gambling-related harm. The Emerging Adult Gambling Screen (EAGS) addresses this gap by focusing on behaviors rather than labels and has been shown to more than double detection rates in this population.

3. Gambling disorder is a recognized behavioral addiction with serious legal consequences. Gambling disorder is the only behavioral addiction formally recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), with brain pathways similar to those involved in substance use disorders. Despite this, legal systems frequently treat gambling-motivated behaviors as moral or criminal failures rather than health issues. This disconnect contributes to incarceration rather than treatment, even though a substantial proportion of incarcerated individuals meet the criteria for gambling disorder.

4. Gambling harm is difficult to detect and often misattributed. Unlike substance use, gambling addiction leaves no visible or sensory markers. Warning signs—such as emotional volatility during sports viewing, secrecy, unexplained financial stress, betting on obscure sports, or rising anxiety and depression—are often overlooked or misinterpreted. This invisibility delays intervention and allows harm to escalate unnoticed.

5. The impact of gambling extends beyond individuals to families and communities. Each person experiencing gambling disorder affects an estimated 6–9 others through financial strain, relationship conflict, emotional distress, and legal consequences. This is sometimes referred to as “collateral damage.” Prevention infrastructure lags far behind that for alcohol and drugs. Effective prevention requires early education, workforce training, and community-level strategies—not just individual responsibility tools, crisis responses, and support services.

Reflection Questions

In your daily life, you may have one or more than one of the following roles. Think about the questions that we have posed here. How can you use the Gambling-Related Crime and Punishment interview to respond to these questions?

• Public health professionals:
  • How might emerging-adult-specific screening tools change population-level estimates of gambling harm and inform better prevention policy?
• Young adult casual bettors:
  • When does “betting for fun” start to affect your mood, finances, or relationships? Who could you talk to if that line feels blurry?
  • What early warning signs would help you or your friends pause before betting becomes difficult to control?
  • Have you ever placed bets using bonus money that encouraged you to wager more than you normally would? Did it change how you thought about your budget?
• High school or college athletics professional:
  • How can schools introduce gambling education and screening before students encounter betting through college sports culture?
  • What training or resources could you provide to coaches and staff so they can recognize early signs of gambling-related harm in student-athletes?
• Parent or guardian:
  • What changes in behavior or emotions might signal that sports betting—not just sports fandom—is affecting your teen’s well-being? How could you start a nonjudgmental conversation about it?

Additional Resources

1. Emerging Adult Gambling Screen
2. Malkin Gambling-Motivated Crime Diversion Checklist
3. Problem Gambling Resources by State
4. Learn more about Professor Malkin’s research.
5. Evergreen Council on Problem Gambling podcast: Gambling and Criminal Justice