Submission Date

7-24-2026

Document Type

Paper- Restricted to Campus Access

Department

Business & Economics

Faculty Mentor

Scott King

Comments

Presented during the 28th Annual Summer Fellows Symposium, July 24, 2026 at Ursinus College.

Project Description

Since the Supreme Court overturned PASPA in 2018, many states have legalized sports betting while others have not. This has created an opportunity to study whether legalized sports betting is associated with changes in crime. While much of the existing research focuses on gambling addiction and financial hardship, fewer studies have examined whether legalization is related to changes in crimes.

This project compares states with and without legalized sports betting, including North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania. Annual data from 2011 through 2024 are being collected from sources such as the FBI Crime Data Explorer, the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Federal Reserve Economic Data database. In addition to crime, the analysis includes poverty, unemployment, educational attainment, population density, government safety net programs, and drug and alcohol use so that the effect of sports betting can be examined while accounting for other factors that influence crime.

The goal of this research is to determine whether sports betting legalization has an independent relationship with crime after controlling for these economic and demographic variables. The findings may provide a better understanding of the broader social impacts of legalized sports betting and contribute to future policy discussions surrounding gambling expansion.

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