Cross-party group of US Senators push for ‘urgent action’ on rise in youth sports gambling

Five US Senators, led by Republican Katie Britt and Democrat Dick Durbin, have published a letter urging action against youth gambling.

Britt and Durbin have jointly led a cross-party letter with Senators Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), addressed to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It pushes for action to be taken to study and address what they call an “alarming rise” in sports gambling among young people, with a focus on possible negative impacts on teens and young adults.

I joined my colleague @SenKatieBritt to send a letter to the CDC urging them to research the impacts of gambling on children. As sports gambling proliferates across the U.S., we must ensure we protect kids.

— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) January 15, 2026

“We write to urge the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to study how America’s youth are being impacted by the rapid rise of sports gambling across America,” wrote the Senators.

“Since the legalization of sports gambling in the United States, there has been limited research examining the extent to which minors are accessing sports betting platforms – whether through illegal access of legitimate platforms or through illegitimate offshore operations. However, the few existing studies are deeply troubling.”

The rise of sports gambling could result in a rise in related harms

This echoes concerns made by experts in March last year, with questions raised about whether enough care was being given to the potential associated harms of the sports betting industry as it continues to grow in the US.

“We believe policymakers and American families deserve to know the extent to which our children are engaging in potentially addictive and detrimental behavior,” continued the Senators in the letter.

Specifically, the group of Senators asked the CDC to develop and include questions about gambling in its Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, which gauges risks to young people’s health every two years. This would collect data for both policymakers and families on how and to what extent gambling could be harming young people across the US.

Image credit: SenKatieBritt / X

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