Online Betting Boom Coincides with Rising Gambling Hazards Across Nations

16 September 2026

The online betting boom of the past five years, from Nigeria to the United States to the United Kingdom, has coincided with rising concerns over gambling-related harms, especially among young men and college students.

The surge in online gambling has pushed the pastime to the center of public health discussions, and a host of new studies from the World Health Organization, The Lancet, and Harvard adds weight to the growing call to address online betting's risks.

New Numbers Show Benefits Questions Growing

Gambling, once framed as a mostly private issue of consumer choice and entertainment, is now widely recognized by health authorities as a public health risk. While it provides revenue and entertainment benefits to many, it's associated with significant hazards when uncontrolled, including mental illness, suicide, financial distress, relationship breakdown, and domestic violence.

Now online betting has fueled a significant rise in gamblers at risk. An NBC News report last year estimated 70 million people worldwide experience gambling-related problems. A Lancet commission led by Professor Sally Gainsbury put the figure at 400 million. Parts of that spike are undoubtedly due to informal forms of betting, which proliferated on social media platforms.

Experts say the scope of online gambling, which can turn almost any event into a wagered-on one, only worsens those risks. Take the rise of online casino-style games. These rapid-fire bets can weaken the gambler's self-control, and depressed young men in particular have been harmed by online casino algorithms that track past bets, personalizing game-play options to exploit the gambler's impulsivity.

Something about the speed and convenience of online betting seems to encourage more impulsive, compulsive behavior. Sadly, it's led to increases in gambling addicts at risk of harm, the same Lancet commission found.

Tiny concession halls, giant betting losses

The boom is driving regulatory changes. Harvard reported that total U.S. sports wagers jumped from $4.6 billion in 2017 to $120 billion in 2023, with 93% of wagers placed online. Similar betting surges are happening from Australia to Sweden. In South Africa, local reports indicate wagering volumes hit R1 trillion in 2024, and calls to the national gambling helpline exceeded one million that year, up from 60,000 just a year earlier.

The volume of bets matters because gambling addiction rates have reached 22% nationally - higher than anticipated. Research from JAMA Internal Medicine showed online sportsbooks had a "significantly greater impact" on gambling addiction than traditional sportsbooks. In Canada, emergency-room visits for gambling-related reasons in Ontario were 98% higher than expected after the province expanded private online gambling and single-event sports betting in 2022.

The UK Gambling Commission reported that 80% of those contacting the GamCare helpline in 2026 cited problems with online betting, the highest in five years. GamCare also reported a 10% month-on-month increase in calls after major sporting events.

More on this is available via Online-E-Sport-Wetten in Deutschland.

Policy Responses Vary, but protectionists gain

Policy makers are still assessing the situation, and the tone of government discussions has shifted since 2020 to appropriately categorize this as a public health issue rather than mere entertainment.

In New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, more gambling-addiction education is being mandated, and the states are devoting increased resources to studying the subject. In Norway and Finland, stricter regulations and consumer protection measures are being introduced as public concern grows.

But in many places, policies haven't kept pace with the speed and convenience of online betting, and the harms are real, studies show.

Quick-betting formats targeting young adults, combined with their financial inexperience, have led to increases in gambling addicts harming themselves or others.

Research indicates sports bettors are also more prone to casino gambling or other forms of betting, attracted by the promise of fast rewards.

Labeling this a public-health issue doesn't prevent any event from becoming a betting opportunity, and that ease of access is harming impulsive gamblers because online casino games are designed for repeat play, tracking player behavior to optimize engagement and betting patterns.

The combination of growing research, increasing betting volumes, and addiction studies all point to significant public-health concerns. Pressure from sports organizations and health advocates is already challenging arguments about the convenience of online betting.