Arnold Ventures, founded by Laura and John Arnold, is awarding $2.6 million in grants to several universities to study the effects of sports gambling on people. (Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
Houston Chronicle via Getty Images
Arnold Ventures is investing approximately $2.6 million to fund 12 new grants for several universities and research organizations to conduct empirical research about the impact of sports betting in the United States.
The 12 projects, announced yesterday, are organized around four main priorities:
- Advancing Evidence on Consumer Behavior and Risk
- Understanding Financial and Household Impacts
- Evaluating Public Health and Social Outcomes
- Informing State Policy and Revenue Considerations
The research will be led by investigators at Princeton University, Indiana University, Vanderbilt University, the University of Wisconsin (which was awarded two grants), West Virginia University, UCLA, the University of New Hampshire, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Pennsylvania, Behavioral Insights and the Urban Institute.
Many of the teams consist of researchers from multiple institutions. For example, one of the grants led by Scott Baker with the University of Wisconsin will also include investigators from the University of Nebraska, the University of Kansas, Brigham Young University, and Ohio State University. They will study how individuals respond to gambling wins and losses over time.
Sarah Schutz, a postdoctoral researcher in Health Policy at the Vanderbilt School of Medicine, is the principle investigator on a study that will be conducted in collaboration with Lawrence Baker, associate policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. It will examine whether access to legalized online sports betting is associated with changes in mental health diagnoses, prescription rates, and the utilization of care.
A multi-institution team led by UCLA marketing professor Brett Hollenbeck will evaluate how exposure to sports betting advertising affects consumer behavior, such as betting participation and app downloads.
Sports betting permeates American life. According to a new survey by the Siena University Research Institute and St. Bonaventure University’s Jandoli School of Communication, 27% of Americans and 52% of men ages 18-49 report that they have an active account with an online sportsbook such as DraftKings, Caesars, FanDuel, or BetMGM.
Universities have good reason to study the issue of gambling, which is reaching crisis proportions on American campuses. A recent study of students from seven Mississippi universities found that 39% had gambled in different formats in the prior year. Of those who engaged in sports betting, 6% met the diagnostic criteria for problem gambling as defined by the American Psychiatric Association.
Americans legally bet almost $167 billion on sports in 2025, an 11% increase over 2024. Sports wagering has surged ever since 2018, when the Supreme Court struck down the federal ban on sports gambling in its Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association decision. That ruling left it up to the states to legalize or ban the practice. Currently, sports betting is legal in 40 states including Washington D.C., with 30 states offering online sports betting through licensed apps.
“Just a few years ago, most Americans had to travel significant distances to legally gamble on sports. Today, access to gambling has become so widespread that, in most of the country, anyone with a smartphone could effectively have a casino in their pocket,” said Justin Milner, Arnold Ventures’ Executive Vice President of Evidence & Evaluation, in a press release. “These research projects will shed light on the impacts of this new reality and help policymakers weigh important decisions about whether to legalize gambling, how to regulate it, and how to effectively reduce harm for their constituents.”
About Arnold Ventures
John Arnold earned his degree in mathematics and economics from Vanderbilt University in 1995. After a stint at Enron as an energy analyst and trader, he created his own highly successful hedge fund, Centaurus Advisors, in 2002. He closed the fund in 2012. Forbes pegs his net worth at $2.8 billion.
Laura and John Arnold founded Arnold Ventures in 2008 to provide philanthropic support for evidence-based solutions to major social challenges. According to its website, its focus areas include criminal justice, higher education, health, infrastructure, and public finance. Original signatories of The Giving Pledge, in which wealthy individuals promise to give the majority of their wealth to charitable causes, the Arnolds have donated over $2 billion to various recipients.