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Impact of sports gambling on mental health

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  • Couture, Cody
  • Cross, Jeffrey
  • Wu, Stephen

Abstract

Utilizing the staggered legalization of gambling across states following the repeal of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, we provide causal evidence of the impact of gambling on mental health. Our results indicate that legalized gambling leads to a 5.5 percentage points decrease – over 11% – in the likelihood of poor mental health for men between 18 and 24, but a 3.8 percentage point increase – nearly 10% – for men between 30 and 34; there is no discernible effect for women.

Suggested Citation

  • Couture, Cody & Cross, Jeffrey & Wu, Stephen, 2024. "Impact of sports gambling on mental health," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 243(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:243:y:2024:i:c:s0165176524004063
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2024.111922
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    Cited by:

    1. Fleming, Owen & Singh, Tejendra Pratap & Yusuff, Olanrewaju, 2024. "The Effect of Online Sports Gambling Laws on Time Use," OSF Preprints nxg6y, Center for Open Science.
    2. repec:osf:osfxxx:nxg6y_v1 is not listed on IDEAS

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