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Young adults in Massachusetts largely view sports betting as a low-risk activity, even as they acknowledge gambling’s potential harms, according to a three-year study presented last week to the state’s Gaming Commission.
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission commissioned the research, which NORC at the University of Chicago conducted with Gemini Research from 2023 to 2026. The project examined how people ages 18 to 25 perceive and engage with sports betting, a group researchers say remains understudied.
Participants readily identified sports betting’s risks but generally believed those risks applied to others, not themselves. The findings arrive as Massachusetts’s legal betting market continues to expand, raising questions about whether current consumer protections reflect how young adults actually gamble.
A three-year look inside young adults’ betting habits
The qualitative study drew on interviews with 62 young adults statewide, along with a dozen sports betting researchers, policymakers and industry vendors. Researchers also spoke with college counselors, athletic directors and mental health clinicians about sports betting’s effects on young adults and ways to reduce those harms.
Of the young adults interviewed, 71% had placed a sports bet; 66% of that group were 21 to 25 years old, and the rest were 18 to 20 — younger than the state’s legal betting age of 21.
Massachusetts legalized sports wagering under a 2022 law. The state accepted its first legal retail bet at its three casinos on Jan. 31, 2023, and expanded to online sports wagering on March 10.
Bettors have since wagered billions of dollars, and the state has collected about $478 million in sports-betting tax revenue as of June, according to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. Researchers said that rapid growth has reshaped how many young adults view betting.
Small bets, big games: How young adults wager
Most participants said they typically wagered less than $10 at a time, betting casually and more often during live games. Football and basketball drew the most activity, though many also bet on events such as the Olympics.
Participants generally preferred simple moneyline bets, a pattern researchers said differs from national trends favoring parlays and player-prop bets. Nearly all said they bet online or through mobile apps, and most knew about fantasy sports and prediction markets even if they rarely used them.
Participants know the risks, but feel personally immune
Researchers repeatedly found a gap between participants’ understanding of gambling risks and how they viewed their own behavior. Katie Gallant of NORC highlighted the pattern while presenting the findings.
“There was a really important contradiction that repeatedly emerged throughout this study, and that was that participants recognized these risks in theory, but many of them viewed themselves and their immediate friends as relatively immune to these risks,” Gallant said.
She added that mobile technology has helped normalize sports betting, with participants describing betting apps as always within reach.
Betting ads are nearly impossible to avoid
Participants described sports betting ads as inescapable, saying they encountered them on social media, podcasts, television, mobile apps and public transportation.
Researchers said the constant exposure has reinforced betting as socially acceptable among young adults, including some who don’t gamble regularly. Participants under 21 described bypassing age restrictions using fake identification, offshore betting sites, VPNs or accounts belonging to older friends or relatives.
Shifting demographics reveals gaps in support
Men still bet more often than women, the study found, though several participants said they had noticed more women wagering since legalization in 2023.
Awareness of support services remained limited. Petry Ubri of NORC said most young adults knew only of gambling helplines or the responsible-gambling disclaimers attached to ads, and many questioned whether those resources worked.
Professionals who work with young adults told researchers they lacked training and resources focused specifically on sports betting rather than gambling in general.
Researchers urge stronger safeguards for young bettors
According to a report by 22News Plus, Ubri recommended:
- Expanding public education campaigns aimed at young adults
- Improving access to support services
- Studying how advertising shapes attitudes toward betting
Researchers also urged the commission to strengthen app-based responsible-gambling tools and improve age verification across betting platforms.
“Because legalization remains relatively recent in the state, continued evaluation will be essential to understanding how behaviors and impacts evolve over time,” Ubri said, calling for continued investment in research and monitoring.
Those concerns extend beyond the study. Treatment referrals to the state’s Problem Gambling Helpline for residents in their 20s and 30s rose from 140 in fiscal 2022 to 300 in fiscal 2024, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Lawmakers have begun weighing proposals that could further reshape the state’s gambling landscape, with debate expected ahead of the next budget cycle.
