More Americans believe legal sports betting is bad today than in 2022, a new Pew Research survey shows.
Unfortunately, more Americans than ever are betting on sports — a dangerous trend driven almost exclusively by young people placing online sports bets.
Of the nearly 10,000 American adults Pew polled on the question this year, 43% said legal sports betting is bad for society and 40% said its bad for sports.
In a similar 2022 survey, only 34% of surveyed adults said legal sports betting was bad for society. Even fewer (33%) felt it was bad for sports.
The data suggests Americans are becoming more aware of the harms of commercial sports betting — an inherently predatory industry that makes most of its money by targeting people who are addicted to gambling.
But increased public disapproval of legal sports betting has not yet decreased the number of Americans who bet on sports. An estimated 7% of U.S. adults placed a commercial sports bet in the last year, according to Pew, compared to just 4% in 2022.
This increase is driven entirely by online sports betting. The number of respondents who reported placing an online sports bet in the past year nearly doubled from 2022 (6%) to 2025 (10%), while the number of people who reported betting on sports in person stayed constant.
This is bad news. Online sports books use the same technology that makes smartphones addictive to offer endless potential wagers, instantaneous money transfers and ways to bet without missing a second of the big game.
In other words, it has never been faster or easier to bet money, lose it and chase your losses.
But it isn’t just about addictive product design. Online sportsbooks actively target their most lucrative customers — problem gamblers.
In April, the city of Baltimore sued DraftKings and FanDuel, the two biggest online sports books in the country, for using deceptive and fraudulent business practices.
The complaint alleged the sports books used extensive data collection to identify professional and problem gamblers. Professionals were purportedly banned from the platform while problem gamblers were assigned VIP hosts to funnel them perks, promotions and encouragement to keep gambling.
Worse, the overall increase in online sports betting between 2022 and 2025 was driven by young people. This year, 17% of surveyed adults under 30 reported betting on an online sportsbook in the past year — a 10% increase from 2022.
Young people, particularly college-age men, were early adopters of online sports betting and some of the first to become addicted. They are also some of the most vulnerable to addiction because their brains are still developing.
The same is true of adolescents. The Lancet’s 2024 Public Health Commission on problem gambling estimates 10.3% of adolescents around the world gambled online in 2023 — often illegally. Of those who bet on sports, the commission estimates more than 16% could have a gambling disorder.
Problem gambling is a horrible, often hidden addiction with cascading impacts on the families and communities of those suffering.
Problem gamblers are statistically more likely than their peers to both commit and be the victim of domestic violence. Upwards of 30% of problem gamblers experience suicidal ideation, per the American Psychological Association.
As America contends with the proliferation of legal commercial sports betting, Les Bernal, the National Director of Stop Predatory Gambling, says parents can do two important things to protect their kids —beyond refusing to gamble themselves.
First, Bernal tells the Daily Citizen, parents should include predatory gambling — particularly online gambling — in the list of addictive products to warn their kids about. Commercial gambling should never be normalized as a harmless form of entertainment.
Second, Bernal encourages parents to support online gambling reform in their communities and at the ballot box. The gambling industry must take responsibility for selling addictive products, he argues, the same way tobacco and opioid companies do.
Legal commercial sports betting is not harmless entertainment. As baseball season winds down, and football and basketball ramp up, please consider how you will protect your children and family from its harmful influence.
Additional Articles and Resources
Baltimore Sues FanDuel, DraftKings for Targeting Problem Gamblers
March Madness Sends Gambling Industry Profits Sky High
Online Sports Betting Hooking Young Men on Gambling, Research Suggests
