What Missouri Can Learn About Sports Gambling Addiction From Other States

Amendment 2 could legalize sports betting in Missouri (Getty Images).

In states with legal sports betting, more Americans are betting more on the talent of sports stars like Patrick Mahomes and Bobby Witt Jr. and they follow the advice of certified financial advisors less.

Households across the country are skipping the stock market and using money that could otherwise be invested to bet on sports. One study, done in part by the University of Kansas, found that households gamble more than $1,100 a year on average, and as money dries up, investments drop 14 percent.

“If you think about it,” said Kevin Pisciotta, assistant professor of finance at KU, “this is a gambling opportunity, unlike most things in casinos, where you could research to fool yourself into thinking you’ve improved your odds.”

Families betting over/under instead of the stock market is a worrying trend that could be coming to Missouri sports betting. But there’s more, and addiction counselors who spoke to The Beacon said state regulations to stop gambling addiction are weak.

On Nov. 5, Missouri voters could legalize sports gambling by passing Amendment 2 and potentially face similar issues.

How has Kansas been?

Kansas legalized sports betting in September 2022. There were 10 calls related to sports betting to the gambling addiction hotline that August. In 2023, there were 66 calls related to sports betting. This is 18% of the 377 calls.

Stephenie Roberts, a certified gambling addiction counselor, said her message to Missouri lawmakers is to make programs available to help everyone.

“Over time, they may see more bankruptcies, suicide attempts (and) embezzlement,” Roberts said. “When people suddenly find themselves in debt, they become desperate. Once your brain is hooked, it’s like any other addiction.”

He said sports betting is one of the most accessible types of gambling addictions. Kansans need only pull out their phones to gamble instead of driving to a casino. These players can also bet everything in their bank account.

Accessibility isn’t the only problem — lax state regulations are, said Roberts, chairman of the South Central Kansas Problem Gambling Task Force.

Kansans can voluntarily ban themselves from sports betting. But they could just sign up for another one in a matter of minutes. The state has free counseling, but more addiction to sports betting means there isn’t enough money in the fund, Roberts said. And sports betting helplines are promoted in the ads, but that information is wrapped up in the last few seconds of the ads.

The National Council on Problem Gambling surveyed all states with legal sports gambling. He found loopholes in the Kansas law.

A September 2024 report said Kansas was in the bottom third of states in the number of standards met.

The report noted that Kansas has no state laws that set mandatory wagering limits when accounts are set up, does not have certain types of wagering limits, does not require marketing campaigns about how to spot problem gambling behavior and does not require audits of policy effectiveness and progress reports.

That’s not to say it doesn’t happen, but Kansas law doesn’t clearly require any state employees or sportsbooks to implement these rules.

The state isn’t being proactive enough, Roberts said.

“The easier it is for you to go do these activities, the more they will do it and the more they will develop problems associated with it,” he said.

Layne Jacobson, a Colorado-based gambling addiction counselor, said he would tell state lawmakers to put limits on how much someone can gamble, spend more on addiction prevention services and improve gambling monitoring age of the players.

Colorado state law requires anyone to be 21 years of age or older to play. However, he has seen patients as young as 16 pass through the firewall.

“We’re always playing catch-up with online casinos,” Jacobson said, adding that new forms of gambling often mean casinos are ahead of addiction counselors.

Andrew Burden has placed sports bets in Kansas. He likes the extra rush that sports games bring, but he knows the dangers of sports betting. Burden knows people who are so in debt that they were excluded from applications.

Burden and other bettors who spoke to The Beacon said sportsbooks do a good job of warning people about the dangers of gambling. The FanDuel app, for example, will send reminders to players about how much time they’ve spent on the app and how much they’ve bet. FanDuel even alerts players when they deposit more money than they usually do on average.

Burden said sports betting could move faster to ban players who are losing thousands.

“On the other hand,” he said, “when people make a lot of money … they will be banned from their sports betting.”

Missouri Sports Betting Regulations

Key Missouri lawmakers did not respond to questions about possible state regulations if sports gambling were to pass. Those who said so are not aware of any discussion.

The Missouri Gaming Commission has the ability to introduce gambling regulations. The board did not respond to requests for comment on what it might do. He has said in previous interviews that he would look to other states for help.

Unlike Kansas, Missouri would substantially increase funding to fight problem gambling addiction.

Missouri first poured money into a problem gambling fund in 2001. Since then, the fund has received a total of $5.4 million. If approved, Missouri could put $5 million into the problem gambling fund each year.

The KU study

Justin Balthrop, an assistant professor of finance at KU, said people assume he’s against sports betting because of his research. He is not. He just wants people to understand all the consequences of sports betting.

The study, “Gambling Away Stability: Sports Betting’s Impact on Vulnerable Households,” found that the amount of money invested in the stock market fell nearly every quarter in the first three years after a state legalized it. The long-term financial risks of this shift are seen to fall more heavily on working-class households with less margin for error.

Sean Benson, who has been betting on sports in Kansas, sees sports betting as a fun thing to do, not a way to make serious money. He can see the appeal of sports betting over the stock market, even if he doesn’t.

A company’s stock price will go up or down and it’s not always clear why, he said. But he can see with his own eyes why a sports bet wins or loses.

“As a sports fan my whole life, it’s the thing I understand the most,” Benson said. “I’d probably like stocks better if I understood business.”

Benson doesn’t like how much sports betting advertises during games, but believes there are enough regulations to curb gambling addiction.

Balthrop said the study doesn’t have the data to suggest perfect changes to state law. But he wants players to be more aware of how easy it is to lose.

Most people know that the house always wins in a casino, he said, but sports bettors could be fooled into thinking they have an advantage by watching enough game tape. But sports betting is also good for making money.

“Many of the potential negative consequences could be mitigated, if not eliminated,” Balthrop said, “if people could be a little more educated about exactly what the average sports betting profile looks like.”

This post has been corrected to correctly spell Andrew Burden’s name.

This article first appeared on Beacon: Missouri and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.