The following is excerpted from an online article posted by StudyFinds
Millions of Americans have a sports betting app on their phone, and many use it only occasionally. For a growing number of frequent bettors, though, that app is doing something more troubling, and households with little savings are feeling it the most.
A new study of financial transactions from more than 183,000 U.S. households tracked real bank and credit card records rather than relying on surveys.
It found that after states legalized online sports betting, frequent bettors cut their investment deposits by 56 percent. For every dollar deposited into a betting app, investment deposits fell by about 20 cents. That is not pocket change lost to a fun night watching football. It looks like money that might otherwise have gone into long-term investments was redirected toward betting.
Legal sports betting has exploded nationwide since the Supreme Court struck down a federal ban in 2018. Consumers now place more than 160 billion dollars in bets a year, and the industry books more than 16 billion dollars in annual revenue. States have welcomed the tax windfall, but this research raises a pointed question: what happens to household finances once betting becomes as easy as opening an app?
Source: StudyFinds
https://studyfinds.com/sports-betting-cutting-americans-savings/