Harmful Gambling | Sports Betting
North Carolina
A record number of people have called the state’s problem gambling helpline since North Carolina launched legal online sports betting earlier this year.
The helpline took more than 500 calls between March and the end of June, according to data collected by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and obtained by WRAL.
It is the busiest four-month period on record for the helpline, which has data back to 2010. The North Carolina Problem Gambling Helpline set records for the numbers of calls taken in April, May and June, the last month for which data is available.
Sports betting in North Carolina began on March 11, and gamblers in the state have wagered more than $2.5 billion through the end of July.
“In almost every state where we’ve expanded gambling, especially in terms of sports with wagering or iGaming, we’ve seen a rapid growth in the number of calls going to their hot lines,” said Michelle Malkin, the executive director of East Carolina University’s Gambling Research and Policy Initiative.