Michigan's Gambling Helpline Calls Tripled

The cleanest natural experiment in the country

Most arguments about gambling legalization are arguments about what might happen. Michigan is one of the few places where enough time has passed to simply look.

Online casino gaming and sports betting went live in January 2021. Before that, calls to the state's problem gambling helpline ran at 1,341 in the 2018-19 budget year. By 2023-24 they were 4,543.

That is not a trend line. It is a step change, and it arrives exactly where the law changed.

The same pattern holds if you smooth it. Averaging the five years before the launch against the five years after gives 1,336 calls a year rising to 3,627, an increase of 171%.

What the research says about causation

A helpline curve on its own cannot tell you why. Awareness campaigns move call volume. A new number moves call volume. Population growth moves call volume.

This is where the research matters.

In Information Systems Research, Brad Greenwood, Gorkem Turgut Ozer and Anand Gopal published "Let It Ride! An Empirical Investigation of Problem Gambling and the Implications of Legalized Online Sports Betting." Rather than looking at one state, they exploit the fact that states legalized at different times and in different forms, and compare what happened to National Problem Gambling Helpline calls and to suicides reported per state.

They find online sports betting legalization associated with a 22.8% increase in helpline calls and a 3.1% increase in suicide rates.

Two things about that deserve emphasis.

The dividing line is online access, not legality. States that legalized sports betting without online access do not show the same effect. What changes outcomes is a sportsbook that is open at 2am, in a pocket, taking a bet in seconds. That is the variable.

The effects concentrate in a specific group: young, unmarried, less educated men. Which is to say the harm is not spread evenly across everyone who gambles. It lands hardest on people who already had the least margin.

On the suicide finding, a note on how to read it. This is a population-level statistical association measured across states, not a statement about any individual and not a prediction about anyone. It belongs in this article because a public health cost that size should be part of a public decision. If you are struggling right now, skip to the bottom of this page, or go straight to our urgent help page.

The forty-four to one problem

In 2023, Michiganders wagered $6.5 billion, roughly $822 for every adult in the state. Michigan collected about $354 million in gaming tax revenue that year, most of it flowing into the School Aid Fund.

In the same era, the state doubled its problem gambling funding from $4 million to $8 million a year, which was a real increase and was reported as a significant win.

Set those two numbers beside each other. Roughly one dollar goes to treatment for every forty-four dollars collected in tax.

We want to be careful about what that comparison does and does not prove, because it is easy to overreach. Gaming tax revenue and problem gambling appropriations come from different budget processes and were never designed as a matched pair. Nobody ever promised a fixed ratio.

But the ratio is still the most honest single summary of how a state has priced this. Michigan built a revenue stream worth hundreds of millions, and funded the repair of its predictable side effect at roughly two percent of that.

For scale on what the $8 million buys: 468 people were referred to treatment in a twelve-month period, with up to twelve outpatient sessions available through about fifty providers.

Who is actually calling

The helpline demographics are worth stating plainly, because they cut against the picture most prevention campaigns still use.

Roughly two-thirds of callers are men. About 30% are in their thirties and 21% in their forties.

Read that next to the national helpline data, where half of all contacts are now aged 18 to 34, and the same person keeps appearing: a working-age man, young enough that the phone has always been the primary way he gambles.

What this does and does not settle

Helplines measure help-seeking. Michigan launched a statewide helpline number and ran awareness campaigns in this period, and both raise call volume without any change in underlying harm. The step change is large and well-timed, but some portion of it is visibility rather than incidence.

The scope of the money figures matters. The $354 million above is total gaming tax revenue for 2023 and the $6.5 billion is total wagered. Figures reported elsewhere for online sports betting alone are much smaller, and are not comparable. We have kept a single scope and a single year here rather than mixing them.

One state is one state. Michigan legalized early, legalized both online casino and sports betting, and has a large population. That combination is not typical.

The causal research is about a category, not about Michigan. The 22.8% and 3.1% figures come from a multi-state design. They explain why Michigan's curve looks the way it does. They are not measurements of Michigan.

If you are in it

The thing about being the data point is that it does not feel like a trend. It feels like a Tuesday.

If your own gambling moved onto your phone when the law changed, and got worse from there, you are the effect these researchers measured. That is not a character finding. It is a product finding.

Our urgent help page lists the national helpline, crisis lines, and same-day options by state, free and confidential, and reachable by text if talking out loud is the part you cannot do yet. Michigan residents can also reach the state's problem gambling services through MDHHS.

Sources

• Online betting increases Michigan revenue, and gambling addiction. Ron French, Bridge Michigan, 11 November 2024. Source for the 1,341 and 4,543 helpline figures, the 2023 wagering and tax revenue, the $4M to $8M funding increase, the 468 treatment referrals, and the caller demographics. Quotes Marlene Warner (Michigan Association of Problem Gambling), Alia Lucas (Michigan Department of Health and Human Services), Senator Sarah Anthony, and David Ledgerwood (Wayne State University)
• Let It Ride! An Empirical Investigation of Problem Gambling and the Implications of Legalized Online Sports Betting. Brad Greenwood, Gorkem Turgut Ozer and Anand Gopal, Information Systems Research. Peer-reviewed. Source for the 22.8% helpline and 3.1% suicide findings and the online-access distinction
• Michigan Gaming Control Board. Monthly iGaming and sports betting revenue reporting
• Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, problem gambling. State treatment and prevention services
• National Council on Problem Gambling. National helpline, free and confidential, 24 hours, by phone, text or chat