- Half of all sports players in Connecticut are problem gamblers, despite making up only two percent of the population
- Researchers found that nearly 71 percent of all legal gambling revenue in Connecticut comes from Connecticut’s less than 7 percent population
- The findings come just two years after the state legalized sports betting and online casino gaming
Half of all sports gamblers in Connecticut are problem gamblers, according to a disturbing new report.
Problem gamblers make up two percent of Connecticut residents.
The findings come just two years after the state legalized sports betting and online casino gaming.
Researchers found that nearly 71 percent of all legal gambling revenue in Connecticut comes from the less than 7 percent of residents who are problem (1.8 percent) or at-risk gamblers (4.9 percent).
According to the report, two-thirds of Connecticut residents gamble.
The findings come just two years after the state legalized sports betting and online casino gaming
Paul Tarbox, the executive director of the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling, said the industry’s dependence on a minority of gamblers is well-established.
However, only ten percent gamble on sports or play online games, an increase of just 1.8 percent since the last report in 2009, suggesting that legalization is having only a modest impact.
Paul Tarbox, the director of the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling, told the Connecticut Mirror that the industry’s financial dependence on a relatively small minority of gamblers was well-established and not unique to Connecticut.
“That was always a known thing,” Tarbox explained.
“It should not be a secret to anyone in the United States that sports betting was taking place, even when it was ostensibly illegal,” said Rachel Volberg, a professor at the University of Massachusetts who led the study by Gemini Research.
Volberg said the calculations of spending by problem and at-risk gamblers were based on thousands of surveys in which gamblers provided their own monthly spending statements.
“It’s basically the part of what everyone tells us they spend on casino games, the part of the money that the problem gamblers tell us they spend,” she explained.
Problem gamblers are defined as people who have “impaired control over their gambling behavior, which is also associated with significant negative consequences for themselves or others.”
High-risk gamblers, on the other hand, exhibit “symptomatology of gambling problems and/or gambling at a very high level, similar to problem gamblers.”
Despite the findings, the report said work to address problem gambling in Connecticut “has been quite proactive and provides a good model for the rest of the country.”
However, it was indicated that additional information was warranted.
A “minority of people with gambling problems were deterred from seeking help due to stigma, not believing treatment would work, not knowing where to get help and estimating its costs,” the report said.
According to the report, a third of people with gambling problems were unaware of the state’s gambling helpline, and half were unaware of the state’s centralized self-exclusion program.