Effects and Consequences of Sports Betting

Gambling has many negative effects and sports betting is no exception. The biggest concern is sports betting is the integrity of the game. It has become common place to advertise the point spread either in the media or before the game itself. The fear is that by announcing this, is really encouraging sports gambling. Furthermore spread betting increases the likelihood of match fixing and there have been numerous point shaving scandals.

Another major issue with sports gambling is running up huge debts this has been the case for the general public as well as high profile athletes. It's widely recognized at every major college campus in the country there is at least one bookie taking bets on college and professional sports. For college student athletes the consequences of sports betting can be very serious. First of all there is the risk of public humiliation for the athletes themselves as well as their families and the institution. Then of course the student athlete can lose their scholarship and face being expelled from the school. The most serious of these consequences if having any chance of a professional career in sports destroyed. Another concern with sports wagering is money laundering occurring in legal sports books it is unknown what the exact figure is, but is estimated at millions of dollars.

There is extreme concern about how sports wagering impacts youth. Sports wagering is a serious problem for teenagers under 18. Starting gambling on sports wagering at a young age often leads to a lifetime of addictive behavior. It's estimated that sports wagering that starts and 10 years old results in wagering on college sports at twice the rate as adults. Research done by American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that there are over one million teens addicted to gambling in the United States.

There is also a trend of many college students running up debts on sports betting. This is often because of addiction to the activity. Debts are likely to lead to even bigger problems such as taking out loans to feed the habit or contemplate suicide because a gambler can't pay debts. Often as with many forms of addiction a compulsive sports gambler can stand to lose everything. Often relationships break down as well as marriages.

The fear that college sports wagering would have an adverse affect on Nevada's economy where collegiate sports wagering is legal is relatively unfounded. Although college sports wagering is a prominent part of gambling in Nevada, its a relatively small part of a multi billion dollar industry. College sports betting makes up only about 5% of the total number wagered on sports. Also sports wagering places restrictions on the growth of the Nevada economy in some ways. As most amateur and professional sports leagues have restrictions on franchise location and events staged because of the presence of sports wagering.

Sports wagering in general does have some benefit to the Nevada economy as it brings 30 million visitors each year. It also creates thousands of jobs. It's important to note that the vast majority of sports betting is illegally, taken place outside of Nevada. Only about 1% of sports betting is legal the rest takes place illegally. That said the 2006 Super Bowl a major event for sports wagering brought in $102.4 million in non gaming income andattracted 285,000 visitors.

Also an addiction to sports gambling can lead to other addictions such as to drugs and alcohol. An addiction to sports gambling is rather similar to any other kind of addiction as the addiction begins to take charge and control your life. This is where family destruction and breakdown can begin to occur as less attention is paid to spouse and children and more on placing bets and watching games on television. When this occurs things can often spiral downwards with loss of car, job and even house. Often as is true with any addiction a sports gambler will turn to other bad behaviors to feed the habit like certain type of crime i.e theft.