Share 
Religious affiliation does not necessarily prevent people from betting on sports, according to a new study from Ohio State University.
Since the US Supreme Court overturned a federal ban on the practice, sports betting has surged in popularity, with sportsbooks now reporting more than $150 billion in annual wagers. Researchers sought to understand how religion influences these betting patterns.
Why religion doesn’t uniformly suppress gambling
“There has been this longstanding assumption that religion discourages gambling. And we wanted to test that core assumption,” said Laura Upenieks, the study’s first author and an associate professor of sociology at Baylor University.
“One of the things you’ll find in our results is that different religious traditions treat gambling very differently, and that religion doesn’t uniformly suppress sports gambling in the United States.”
Researchers said religious affiliation can function as both a “protective factor and a lubricant” for sports betting.
Who bets most? Analyzing affiliation and frequency
“Our findings suggest that sports gambling behaviors seem to be a function of religious identities, affiliations, cultures and practices, but in pretty nuanced ways,” said Chris Knoester, the study’s co-author and a professor of sociology at Ohio State.
The findings revealed that people who attend religious services infrequently are more likely to engage in sports betting. In contrast, those who attend services regularly and those who do not worship publicly are less likely to bet. Catholics, especially men, were identified as the religious group with the highest likelihood of betting on sports.
In a surprising twist, researchers expected a negative correlation between frequent attendance and sports betting, but the findings revealed the opposite in some cases. People who do not attend religious services at all are less likely to bet than those who attend services once or twice a year.
“This result complicates the assertion that any exposure to religion is necessarily protective against morally risky or deviant behavior,” the researchers wrote, according to a Spectrum News 1 report.
Surveying the $150 billion sports betting landscape
The study was conducted between the fall of 2018 and spring of 2019, shortly after the Supreme Court ruling. Researchers surveyed 3,701 adults between ages 21 and 65. The respondents were participants in the National Sports and Society Survey, sponsored by the university’s Sports and Society Initiative.
Participants were questioned about their:
- Religious affiliation
- Service attendance
- Education
- Social class
- Sexuality and Race
About 17% of respondents admitted to betting on sports in the previous year; of those, 20% were men and 15% were women. Participants said they spent an average of $57 on sports betting.
“For most people, sports gambling seems to be an occasional and low-stakes hobby or leisure activity,” Knoester said. “The average person is not gambling thousands of dollars. The average hardcore gambler very well may be, but the average US adult is not.”
Researchers noted the findings do not clarify exactly how affiliation affects gambling and cautioned that people who are “halfway in and halfway out” of religion could experience different outcomes.
