Bipartisan House Bill Would Use Sports Betting Excise Tax Revenue to Fund Federal Study on Gambling Harms

A bipartisan pair of House representatives has introduced legislation that would direct a portion of the federal excise tax collected on sports betting revenue toward funding a national study on the public health and policy consequences of legal sports wagering. Representatives Moore and Goldman are sponsoring the bill, which would allocate excise tax dollars to a structured research effort examining the social and behavioral impacts of the gambling expansion that has unfolded since the Supreme Court struck down the federal ban on sports betting in 2018.

The legislation arrives at a moment when the sports betting industry has reached significant scale in the United States. Dozens of states have legalized some form of regulated sports wagering, and the annual handle — the total amount wagered — now runs into the hundreds of billions of dollars. That growth has generated meaningful tax revenue for states and fees for the federal government, but it has also sparked growing concern among researchers, public health advocates, and lawmakers about problem gambling rates, the impact on young adults, and the broader societal costs of an industry that did not exist in its current form just eight years ago.

Why a Federal Study Matters

The United States currently lacks a comprehensive federal framework for studying sports betting’s public health effects at scale. Most research to date has been conducted by academic institutions, industry-affiliated groups, or state-level organizations, creating a fragmented picture of what legalization has actually done to gambling behavior, addiction rates, and household finances. Proponents of the Moore-Goldman bill argue that a federally funded, independent study would produce more authoritative data and give policymakers a clearer basis for regulating the industry going forward.

The choice to fund the study through excise tax revenue is notable. The federal excise tax on sports betting has been a point of contention within the industry for years, with operators arguing the rate is outdated and burdensome. Redirecting a portion of those dollars toward studying the industry’s impacts would, in effect, make the betting industry itself help pay for an examination of its own consequences — a framing that has appeal across the political spectrum.

What the Bill Would Study

While the bill’s specific scope has not been fully detailed publicly, bipartisan research legislation in this space typically focuses on topics including the prevalence of problem gambling among legalized sports betting users, whether online and mobile betting platforms increase addiction risk compared to traditional in-person options, the effectiveness of existing responsible gambling tools, and how marketing and advertising practices affect consumer behavior. The study would presumably also examine economic effects — both the tax revenue generated and the costs associated with problem gambling treatment, bankruptcy, and related social services.

The federal government has a precedent for commissioning such reviews. The National Gambling Impact Study Commission produced a landmark report in 1999 that shaped gambling policy for a generation, though its findings predate the mobile internet era and the modern sports betting landscape by decades. A new federally commissioned study would be the first of its kind in the legal online sports betting era.

Industry Reaction and What Comes Next

The legal sports betting industry has generally invested in responsible gambling messaging and self-regulatory tools, but it has historically been resistant to calls for additional federal oversight. Individual sportsbook operators are expected to engage with the bill carefully, watching whether it signals a move toward new regulations or is primarily a research initiative with limited regulatory impact.

Passage in the current Congress is far from guaranteed. The bill will need to clear committee review and build broader support in both chambers, a process that can take months or years without an urgent forcing mechanism. Still, the bipartisan sponsorship is significant — it suggests that concern about sports betting’s societal impacts is no longer a partisan issue, and that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are beginning to view federal-level action as appropriate for a sector that has grown well beyond the projections made when legalization began.

For bettors in legal states, the bill underscores the increasing scrutiny that comes with a maturing regulated industry. Understanding the state-by-state sports betting landscape remains important as the regulatory environment continues to evolve at both the state and federal level.