America’s love of sports betting linked to spike in antidepressant use, study finds

Legalizing sports betting online in the United States has led to increases in the use of depression and anxiety medications across nearly half the country, new research has found.

There was also a surge in outpatient diagnoses for the mental health conditions, which are tied to a heightened risk of cardiovascular disease and dementia, in the 22 states.

The findings reinforce what experts already know about gambling: it’s an addiction that is linked to poor mental health and substance abuse.

Sports betting became legal in 39 states following a May 2018 Supreme Court ruling.

Tens of millions of Americans are wagering billions every year on sports bets, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health said Wednesday, which led to the analysis.

“I hope these results will increase awareness among psychiatrists and primary care doctors who treat mental health, as well as online sports bettors themselves, that these online apps can lead to harms beyond financial risks,” senior author Mark Meiselbach, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins, said.

Gender difference

The researchers examined people’s health changes at the state level before and after the 2018 ruling. They used a national dataset of employer-sponsored health insurance claims from January 2016 to December 2023.

The analysis showed there were disproportionate impacts on men, who make up the majority of sports bettors, after legalization.

Legalization was linked to a larger likelihood of depression diagnoses in men than women: a 6.73 percent increased likelihood for men, versus 5.47 percent for women.

There was also a larger probability men would use antidepressant medications: a 5.44 percent increased probability in men compared to a 5 percent increased probability in women.

The same pattern was seen for anxiety diagnoses. There was a 7.2 percent increased likelihood of these diagnoses in men and a 6.5 percent increased likelihood in women.

The only category found to affect women more after legalization was the probability of using anti-anxiety drugs – an increase of 4.99 percent in men and 5.17 percent in women. These are drugs are typically taken more by women.

The analysis found no significant increases in the likelihood people would be diagnosed with substance use disorder or be diagnosed with depression or anxiety in trips to the emergency room.

Future research

The researchers note that the insurance claims data they used does not capture whether people bet on sports.

That’s why they hope future research can be more targeted, allowing them to more directly measure impacts of betting and look at impacts on people without employer-sponsored health insurance.

Separate research has shown diagnoses for gambling disorder rose more than 60 percent in the U.S. since 2018.

“Overall, these findings support the concern that there are broad mental health effects of online gambling legalization, though those who are experiencing those effects, and their clinicians, don’t necessarily attribute it to gambling,” Ben Westermeyer, a PhD candidate in Meiselbach’s research group and the study’s first author, explained.