Estudios de Economía Aplicada ISSN: 1133-3197
[email protected] Asociación Internacional de Economía Aplicada España HUMPHREYS, BRAD R.; PEREZ, LEVI Who Bets on Sports? Characteristics of Sports Bettors and the Consequences of Expanding Sports Betting Opportunities Estudios de Economía Aplicada, vol. 30, núm. 2, 2012, pp. 579-597 Asociación Internacional de Economía Aplicada Valladolid, España Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=30124481010 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative E STUDIOS DE E CONOMÍA A PLICADA V OL. 30 - 2 2012 P ÁGS. 579 – 598 Who Bets on Sports? Characteristics of Sports Bettors and the Consequences of Expanding * Sports Betting Opportunities BRAD R. HUMPHREYS Department of Economics, UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA, CANADA. E-mail:
[email protected] LEVI PEREZ Departamento de Economía, UNIVERSIDAD DE OVIEDO, Fundación Observatorio Económico del Deporte, ESPAÑA. E-mail:
[email protected] ABSTRACT Currently, several proposed changes in sports betting laws are being debated in the United States and the European Union. This article examines the characteristics of sports bettors in three countries, Canada, Spain, and the United Kingdom, to determine who bets on sports in environments where this activity is both legal and popular. Uncondi- tional and conditional analyses find that annual participation rates in sport betting are low, and that sport bettors tend to be young males with relatively high incomes. Sports bettors stand to gain the most from an expansion of legal sports betting opportunities, while the negative impacts of increased access to sports betting are expected to be mini- mal in the United States and difficult to assess in the European Union.