Sports betting has changed. Could it impact your health? — CDC Gaming

If you’ve watched a sporting event recently – and especially if you’ve ever bet on it – you probably already know how radically sports gambling has changed in recent years.

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“It’s not even the same world,” said Dr. Timothy Fong, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Twenty years ago, if you wanted to legally bet on sports, you had to go to a casino in Las Vegas or Atlantic City, “and that was about it,” said Fong, co-director of the UCLA Gambling Studies program. Thanks to regulatory changes and mobile technology, “these days you never have to leave the couch.”

Thanks to the hundreds of millions of dollars the gambling industry has spent on advertising, even casual sports fans know where to place a bet. But few are likely to realize the impact gambling could have on their health.