Graduation Year

2023

Date of Submission

4-2023

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Economics

Reader 1

Nishant Dass

Rights Information

Brian S Kenyon

Abstract

Sports gambling is a new phenomenon that has taken the sports world by storm since May of 2018. From the positives the growing industry has brought to major sports teams and total viewership, there are concerns that arise from the industries expansion nationwide. In my work, I will compare the relationship between states that have legalized sports gambling to states that are yet to legalize sports gambling, and from here determine if any correlation exists with filed bankruptcy rates per capita. Although small, I found significant results showing that states that have legalized sports gambling see more bankruptcy rates per capita than those that have not legalized. In addition to these results, I used many sources of data that display the potential harms of legalized sports gambling. This main regression result is supported by my finding that states with legalized sports gambling see higher unemployment rates statewide. To further strengthen my results, I was able to find a significant relationship displaying states with less labor productivity have more filed bankruptcy rates per capita. Lastly and potentially most importantly, my last analysis details how states with legalized sports gambling see a lower labor productivity in comparison to states without sports gambling. It is very important to note that many of the coefficient results may be small, but the industry not even being five years old nationwide makes these results something that has to be monitored moving forward.

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This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.

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