When Ray Alexander sits down to watch some sort of sporting event, he is usually pretty invested. Not just figuratively but literally. He is an avid sports bettor.
“It makes it a little more exciting if it’s a sport or a couple of teams that I’m not so interested in,” said Alexander. “But I also like to believe that I am fairly good at it.”
He says he’s been gambling on games for about 20 years, well before it was legalized in Pennsylvania in 2018.
“I was using a bookie back in the days when things were a little more illicit,” he said. “Then I went legit once sports gambling was legalized in PA.”
Alexander estimates he’s wagered more than $100,000 since he started making these bets and wins just under half of the time. He says he doesn’t have an issue with gambling and neither do any of his friends. It’s just something they do for fun.
“With a bookie you’re paying on credit, which is some money you may or may not have, and when that was a thing, I feel like I knew more and more people getting issues because they were betting outside of their means,” he said. “While it’s legal, you’re taking money out of your actual bank account. So, when you’re broke, you can’t be more broke.”
Pennsylvania was among the first states to legalize sports wagering. Since then, people have spent billions of dollars placing bets. The vast majority of sports bets take place online, according to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.
“It’s almost too easy,” he said. “Too accessible.”
With gains in sports gambling, the state is seeing a rise in revenue, too. Like other states, Pennsylvania taxes each bet. So far this fiscal year, sports wagering alone has generated more than $147 million in tax revenue, according to the state gaming board. That’s nearly five times from the same timeframe in its first full year. The Gaming Board expects its total revenue generated to hit a billion dollars later this year.
“The sports gambling sector is growing fast,” said Nick Johnson, an analyst with the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “In a few states, it’s really starting to produce a pretty remarkable amount of revenue.”
In Pennsylvania, most of the revenue goes to the general fund. Johnson says that states shouldn’t expect that level of growth to continue overtime and they need to consider how to balance the societal costs of it, too.
“States are still learning about the costs of sports gaming,” said Johnson.
The PA House of Representatives passed a resolution this session instructing the Joint State Government Commission to conduct a study on sports betting in hopes to further regulate the industry and gain a better understanding of it.
Doug Harbach, the spokesperson for the Gaming Control Board, says they’ve always taken issues with problem gambling seriously.
“Certainly, as you make gambling more accessible by putting it on people’s phones and on their PCs, you’re going to see an increase of those who are running into a problem controlling their spending,” Harbach said.
Pennsylvania has safeguards in place, such as a self-exclusion list where people can voluntarily ban themselves from gambling. Thousands of people from our area have added themselves to it.
The Pennsylvania law requires that some money generated by sports betting goes toward addiction treatment. The legislation states that a small amount – less than 1% – goes to a fund. It now exceeds more than $18 million a year, nearly doubling its amount since legalizing sports betting.
The Council on Compulsive Gambling of Pennsylvania is one of the groups that receives money through that fund. The group reports that helpline calls related to sports betting jumped 16% last year compared to 2024.
“We see a lot of situations where, as people continue playing and play more and more in an ongoing fashion at a faster rate, a lot of times that can really lead down a path that’s not very favorable for them,” said Josh Ercole, the council’s executive director.
He says every state, not just Pennsylvania, is still trying to figure out how to balance financial benefits with social costs.
“Anybody who benefits from the losses of other folks, they play a role in having some level of responsibility,” he said.