A case for banning sports gambling

US states that legalized sports gambling should ban it again, an expert argued. In 2012, several states overturned a two-decade ban on sports betting, and by 2023 Americans were betting more than $1 billion a month, Charles Fain Lehman wrote in The Atlantic.

He cited research showing that lifting the ban increased bankruptcies, reduced household savings, and exacerbated domestic violence, especially among deprived communities, and that — contrary to expectations — it didn’t raise much in tax revenue or help reduce black market gambling. Some politicians have proposed careful regulation, but, Lehman argued, “the more elegant solution is the blunter one: ban sports gambling once again.”