The cost of legalized gambling: Disturbing new survey shows half of all sports betters in Connecticut are 'problem gamblers,' just two years after law allowing it was enacted

Half of all sports betters in Connecticut are problem gamblers, according to a disturbing new report.

Problem gamblers make up two percent of Connecticut residents.

The findings come just two years after the state legalized sports betting and online  casino gaming. 

Researchers found that nearly 71 percent of all legal gambling revenue in Connecticut comes from the fewer than 7 percent of residents who are problem (1.8 percent) or at-risk gamblers (4.9 percent). 

Two-thirds of Connecticut residents gamble, according to the report.

The findings come just two years after the state legalized sports betting and online casino gaming

Paul Tarbox, the director of the the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling, said the industry's reliance on a minority of gamblers was well-established

However, only ten percent  bet on sports or play online games, up only 1.8 percent since the last report in 2009, suggesting only a modest impact from legalization.  

Paul Tarbox, the director of the the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling told the Connecticut Mirror that the industry's financial reliance on a relatively small minority of gamblers was well-established and not unique to Connecticut. 

'That was always kind of a well-known thing,' Tarbox explained. 

'It shouldn't be a secret to anybody in the United States that sports betting was happening even when it was purportedly illegal,' Rachel Volberg, a University of Massachusetts professor who led the study by Gemini Research, said. 

Volberg said the calculations of spending by problem and at-risk gamblers were based on thousands of surveys in which gamblers provided their own monthly accounts of spending.

'It's basically the proportion of what everybody tells us they spent on casino games, the proportion of the money that the problem gamblers tell us they spend,' she explained.

Problem gamblers are defined as those having 'impaired control over their gambling that is also associated with significant negative consequences for themselves or others.' 

At-risk gamblers on the other hand show 'problem gambling symptomatology and/or are gambling at very high levels similar to problem gamblers.'

Despite its findings the report stated that work to tackle problem gambling in Connecticut has 'been quite proactive and provides a good model for the rest of the country.

However, it advised that additional outreach was warranted.

A 'minority of people with gambling problems were deterred from seeking help because of stigma, not believing treatment would work, being unaware of where to get help, and perceived costs,' it stated. 

One-third of people with gambling problems were unaware of the state’s gambling helpline, and half did not know about the state’s centralized self-exclusion program, according to the report.