In a first-of-its-kind study from the University of California San Diego Rady School of Management, researchers have identified comprehensive insights into the positive and negative impacts of online gambling legalization on tax revenue and gambling behaviors in the U.S. They find it enhances state revenues, but increases irresponsible gambling, especially among lower-income consumers.
“Our data show that online gambling legalization leads to more irresponsible gambling spending among lower-income consumers than among higher-income gamblers,” said Kenneth C. Wilbur, professor of marketing and analytics at the Rady School and co-author of the study. “We define gambling irresponsibly as spending a high proportion of their income —for example, 10%—on gambling.”
The authors of the working paper analyzed five years of data from a total of 32 states. They compared 18 states that changed online gambling policies to 14 states that did not have gambling policy changes using ...
