On Super Bowl Sunday, millions of neutral fans outside of Philadelphia and Kansas City will have an incentive to root for the Eagles or the Chiefs: A record $16 billion is expected to be wagered on the game, a sign of the growing popularity of sports betting since 2018, when the Supreme Court overturned a federal ban on it.
More and more Americans support legal sports betting. But researchers are only starting to understand the consequences of so many opportunities to place bets – easier than ever, thanks to the proliferation of gambling apps. The state of New Jersey has tasked Lia Nower, the director of the Center for Gambling Studies at Rutgers University, with interviewing gamblers and analyzing every bet placed online in the state since 2018.
Her team’s findings, which include heightened suicide risk, massive losses and impulsive betting, may give some gambling enthusiasts pause.
Also today:
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Fans celebrate at the William Hill Sports Book in Atlantic City, N.J.
Lisa Lake/Getty Images for William Hill US
Lia Nower, Rutgers University
Researchers who analyzed every sports bet placed online since 2018 found that young adults are the fastest-growing group of bettors, with more than 70% of them placing in-game bets.
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Economy + Business
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Kevin Trenberth, University of Auckland
New Zealand is considering a plan to tax methane from cows. But while cows and cars both emit greenhouse gases, they don’t have the same impact over time.
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Science + Technology
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Anjana Susarla, Michigan State University
Twitter was blocked in Turkey for about 12 hours at the height of rescue and relief efforts in the aftermath of a massive earthquake, severely hampering a vital tool for disaster response.
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Laure Brimbal, Texas State University
Kids need to learn when little lies are the right choice. But research suggests parents may not be clear in the messages they send about how they value the truth.
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Jon-Patrick Allem, University of Southern California
Twitter has long allowed anyone to access its data about who tweeted what and when. This has been a boon to research, from public health to criminology. The new fees put that research at risk.
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Education
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Thomas Dee, Stanford University
Federal, state and local efforts to help students recover learning they missed or lost during the pandemic are underway. But those projects don’t include the youngest students.
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Health + Medicine
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Kent E Vrana, Penn State
CBD isn’t a miracle cure for everything that ails a person – but science shows that it has the potential to help treat a number of health conditions.
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Naomi Cahn, University of Virginia; Sonia Suter, George Washington University
A rash of pending lawsuits raises questions about the FDA’s approval of mifepristone two decades ago, whether the drug can be legally mailed and the constitutional right to interstate commerce.
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Politics + Society
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Melissa K. Merry, University of Louisville; Aaron Smith-Walter, UMass Lowell
Gun policy scholars explain why even supporters of gun control often believe new restrictions are doomed to fail.
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Carmen Alvaro Jarrin, College of the Holy Cross
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will meet with President Biden at the White House on Feb. 10, 2023, to discuss several joint issues. But democracy is job one.
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Michael A. Allen, Boise State University; Carla Martinez Machain, University at Buffalo; Michael E. Flynn, Kansas State University
Espionage routinely plays out between countries like the US and China. But a public spectacle like the Chinese spy balloon can change the game.
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