A popular online habit is linked to a surge in ER visits and one group is hit hardest

It’s a gamble for your health.A popular online pastime is proving to be a bad bet for some players, with new research linking its rise to a spike in emergency-room visits — and one demographic getting hit particularly hard.The findings, from Canada, could be a warning sign for the US, where the activity has taken off in recent years.In the study, researchers from the University of Toronto and other institutions zeroed in on single-event online sports betting.Canada legalized it in August 2021, and Ontario opened the door to private operators the following April, becoming the first province to allow them to compete alongside the government-run platform.The move has proved to be a cash cow.In 2024 alone, Ontarians wagered $82.7 billion through 2.6 million player accounts.To gauge the fallout, researchers analyzed emergency department visits for gambling disorders among Ontarians ages 10 to 105 over 14 years, before and after the rule changes.In all, 757 people made 952 ER visits during that time in which a gambling disorder was listed as either the main or a contributing reason for the trip.After Canada legalized single-event sports betting and Ontario expanded its gambling market, gambling-related ER visits doubled.But the impact wasn’t evenly spread.

Visits were 154% higher than expected among males ages 10 to 29 and 116% higher among males ages 30 to 44.Notably, there were no changes among females.Many of the patients arrived at the ER with major depression or suicidal thoughts, while others had mental-health or substance-abuse diagnoses.Nearly one-third of the emergency department visits resulted in a hospital admission.“Most people experiencing gambling problems will never seek care, so the concern is that the increases in emergency department visits for gambling disorders we observed may be revealing much larger increases in gambling-related harm,” Daniel Myran, senior author of the study and an associate professor of family and community medicine, s...