Mental Health Update

• Insure that gambling addiction treatment disorders are covered by insurance
• Creation of 16 recovery community and outreach centers
• Creation of a gambling health institute
• Peer certification for those who are in recovery from gambling disorder
• Working to ensure that young people cannot download betting aps

Commentary:
Surge in online gambling raises the stakes for addiction

By Glenn Liebman,
For the Times Union
Feb 26, 2026

Mobile wagering, which targets the most vulnerable, needs legislative guardrails.
Let’s set them before New York expands the market any further.

The Super Bowl remains the undisputed heavyweight of American sports. More than a third of the country plunks down in front of the TV on Super Bowl Sunday every year. But this year, a significant percentage of viewers were also focused on the game within the game, dividing attention between football on the big screen and bets placed on their small screen.

Americans were poised to wager more than $1.7 billion legally on Super Bowl LX. That’s a 27% increase over last year, revealing a mind-boggling upward trajectory in the growth of high-stakes sports gambling. And a significant chunk, nearly $500 million, is said to have come from a single prediction market on the online betting platform Kalshi, according to early data.

Clearly the proliferation of mobile betting options has helped supercharge wagering. And that’s true not just for the world’s most watched sporting events: Everyday betting options include ones that comparatively few even pay attention to, from ping pong to chess.

For most of us, a friendly bet is recreational and harmless. But the increase in dollars being wagered comes with a corresponding increase in the human cost of addiction.

Calls to the state’s gambling helpline rose by 30% over the past half-decade, according to the state Office of Addiction Services and Supports, while the number of people receiving treatment for gambling addiction increased by 46%.

Those figures are hardly surprising. Since the state legalized mobile sports betting in 2022, New Yorkers have been subjected to a constant barrage of advertisements designed to make every play feel like a life-changing opportunity. Mobile gambling options have become so prolific that Attorney General Letitia James was compelled to issue a consumer alert days before the Super Bowl warning against unregulated betting platforms that operate without state Gaming Commission oversight.

Young men are particularly vulnerable. Recent data reveals that gambling has become common among adolescent boys, with more than a third gambling before they turn 18. Nearly half of those who gamble see online material that promotes gambling, mostly through algorithmic exposure.

For too long, the rapid advancements in algorithmic marketing and AI have outpaced New York state’s ability to fully understand and address the consequences of the state’s rapidly expanding gaming landscape. But now officials are starting to pay attention.

This legislative session, Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers have advanced measures to bolster addiction resources and set new guardrails to prevent the cycle of dependency before it starts. Strengthening age assurance rules, capping daily wagers and regulating the rise of prediction markets are all long overdue. Now we must ensure that these and other steps to address problem gambling remain front and center in the state Capitol, especially as conversations percolate about new forms of gambling, such as online casinos.

Let’s build the proper guardrails before we expand the market any further or introduce new risks to our most vulnerable New Yorkers.

Gambling addiction is a rapidly escalating public health threat. We can’t afford to fall any farther behind. New York has got to build a regulatory framework that moves as fast as the industry itself.

Glenn Liebman is chief executive officer of the Mental Health Association in New York State.