Received: Accepted: OctoPublished: October 27, 2021Ĭopyright: © 2021 Espadafor, Martínez. University of South Florida, UNITED STATES The ubiquity of betting houses around vulnerable populations in multiple regions drives us to think that these findings have relevant policy implications for many countries currently designing policies tackling the increase of problem gambling.Ĭitation: Espadafor M, Martínez S (2021) The negative consequences of sports betting opportunities on human capital formation: Evidence from Spain. This evidence suggests that betting houses increase inequality of educational opportunities. This effect is neither trivial nor diminishing with time. Using a differences-in-differences design, we find that new betting houses decline nearby high schools’ educational performance, especially in public schools in less advantaged areas. Our research design takes advantage of a new wave of openings in Madrid (Spain), which created a sudden increase in the supply of on-site gambling. This study provides new evidence on the negative societal effects of betting houses. However, there is little evidence on whether its growing presence nearby vulnerable populations produce social harm beyond its known adverse individual effects. The proliferation of on-site betting shops has received enormous public attention, becoming one of the most alarming health policy issues in contemporary cities.

Impact of uk sports betting