College-aged male binge drinkers and drug users have significantly higher odds of using online sportsbooks, according to a study shared with the Massachusetts Gaming Commission late last week. It is one of a handful of recent studies that link online sports betting with binge drinking.
The Healthy Minds Study, a national mental health study of college students spearheaded by the Boston University School of Public Health, was conducted during the 2024-25 academic year. During that time, 950,000 students at 750 universities were surveyed. Researchers from University of Michigan School of Public Health, the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, and Wayne State University also participated.
BU’s researchers aimed to answer a bevy of questions related to gambling, but the top three were to learn about gambling attitudes, behavior, and problem gambling trends, review college student gambling behavior via the Healthy Minds Study, and assess the effect of gambling advertising exposure. Included in the data are survey results from eight Massachusetts colleges.
Online sports betting is legal in Massachusetts, but online casino is not. The state has three retail casinos spread from Boston to Springfield.
In the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Alberta, researchers conducting a separate study found in April that, among those they polled, 20% of bettors are under the age of 30, 51% of young men drink while betting, and 77% see gambling advertisements weekly.
Women also at risk
The Healthy Minds Study suggested that gender — in particular, being male — is a key driver of online sports betting use, and that binge drinking increases the chances of betting online for men and women. Per the report, there is a 289% higher chance that a woman who is binge drinking will bet online vs. a 190% increased chance for men. Interestingly, a 2025 study led by the Federal Reserve Board and the University of Cincinnati revealed that legal sports betting is driving an increase in binge drinking among young men.
For women, other factors that may contribute to online betting are feeling disconnected on campus, being a part-time student, and mental health issues. For men, a key factor is childhood financial stress.
“Among students who already bet, sportsbook app users are a higher-risk group — drug use,
campus disconnection, and substance use independently predict who uses sports betting apps,” study researchers wrote.
The survey indicated that while about 34% of online sports bettors nationally are under the age of 21, that number drops to about 22% in Massachusetts, where the legal betting age is 21. The legal betting age in Kentucky, Montana, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Washington, D.C., and Wyoming was 18 at the time of the survey. Kentucky lawmakers raised the age to 21 last month.
Smokers, Asians: Betting in control
Among the other findings:
- A high percentage of Massachusetts male sports bettors who also smoke say betting controls their lives.
- Those with any kind of mental health issue have a harder time setting betting limits.
- In Massachusetts, Asians and Blacks have a slightly higher predilection for sports betting than other minorities, while those with lower grades may be more likely to sports bet than those with higher grades.
- For those in Massachusetts who responded to the question of whether or not “sports betting controls my life,” those who are men, Asians, smokers, or binge drinkers were far more likely to respond “yes.”
- For those in Massachusetts who responded to the question about difficulty in setting betting limits, those who are male, have mental health issues, are Asian, or suffer from loneliness were more likely to respond affirmatively.
