Since the fall of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), individual states have had the ability to legalize and enforce their own rules and actions upon sports betting.

Additionally, the state of Kansas followed suit on July 1, 2022, allowing residents the ability to gamble on sports through various companies digitally, impacting the state as a whole.

Despite the money that this might bring in for the state of Kansas, is it worth the impact that gambling will have on the states’ citizens, especially young adults?

Today, citizens believe that while you are gambling money, it isn’t as risky simply because of how companies such as DraftKings or FanDuel present their advertisements. And because young adults are their main demographic, it is important for them to entice people through terms such as “no risk” or “risk-free” betting.

Additionally, with countless American citizens seeing sports betting advertisements every game, it naturally entices people to try their luck at the next way to gamble. While sports betting might be seen as equal to gambling at a casino, it’s much worse than people realize.

From Time.com, “College students are particularly prone to falling into problem gambling due to the availability of betting opportunities, social acceptability of gambling, exposure to widespread advertising, access to spending money, and being at an age when young people experiment with risky behavior.”

Additionally, “Because it is legal, because it is aggressively promoted by corporations, because of its capacity for destruction and because it is spreading so quickly, observers see parallels between gambling and opioid addiction.”

And because young adults are often blind to these parallels, companies find that sports betting is a better way for them to entrap people who gamble excessively.

On top of that, CNN.com reports there are “no federal funds designated for problem gambling treatment or research, unlike federal funding for alcohol, tobacco and drug addiction programs.”

With no federal funds designated for citizens, how do we expect adults — let alone young adults —to handle their money financially smart?

The only way to do so is by informing young adults of the negative outcomes that gambling and sports betting alike can have.

Additionally, states that have legalized sports betting should enforce federal funds directed for people impacted by its effects. If there are federal funds designated for citizens struggling with tobacco or alcohol addictions, why isn’t there funding for gambling or sports betting?