The number of people turning to Google to find help for gambling problems has skyrocketed since 2016. That’s the conclusion of a recent study conducted by researchers from the University of California San Diego and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
According to the study, titled Growing Health Concern Regarding Gambling Addiction in the Age of Sportsbooks, searches for phrases related to gambling addiction have seen massive growth since the Supreme Court’s 2018 PAPSA decision. Researchers based their findings on an analysis of 10 million gambling-related Google queries made between January 2016 and June 2024. What they found was that searches relating to problem gambling surged by 23 percent during that time period. This includes approximately 7 million searches, which peak out with around 180,000 monthly searches.
States that saw the largest increases in gambling problem related searches include: Ohio (67 percent), Pennsylvania (50 percent), Massachusetts (47 percent), Michigan (37 percent), New York (37 percent), Illinois (35 percent), New Jersey (34 percent) and Virginia (30 percent).
During a recent interview with National Public Radio (NPR), American Gaming Association SVP Joe Maloney explained why these numbers show that the regulated gaming industry is working well. “To the extent that there are those that are demonstrating problematic behavior right now, this activity being out in the light, not in the shadows, is enabling services to be delivered,” he said.
John Ayers, a professor of data and behavioral sciences at the University of California San Diego and one of the study’s lead researchers was less chill about the problem gambling surge adding, “Congress must act now by passing commonsense safeguards. History has shown that unchecked industries-whether tobacco or opioids-inflict immense harm before regulations catch up. We can either take proactive steps to prevent gambling-related harms or repeat past mistakes and pay the price later.”