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Congressional bill mandates study into gambling-related harms

Legal Writer

Publish Date: Jun 09, 2026

Fact checked by: Matt Moreno

Key Points

Bipartisan proposal tasks United States Department of Health and Human Services with performing longitudinal assessment.
Study would look at causes of harms related to gambling and potential treatment options.
Bill adds to growing consensus treating disordered gambling as a public health concern.

United States Representatives Dan Goldman (Democrat, New York-10) and Blake Moore (R, Utah-1) have filed a bill in Congress that would create a new legislative study into disordered gaming. Should the measure become law, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) would perform a multi-year survey of the issue in the nation from multiple perspectives.

Those perspectives would include factors behind gambling-related harms and means to reduce them. The potential assessment could mark the first time that federal gambling taxes are used to study gaming as well.

The U.S. Capitol Building is seen on a clear, spring day on May 30, 2026 in Washington, DC.

(Photo by Kevin Carter/Getty Images)

US Reps. Goldman and Moore file H.R.8970

Goldman and Moore submitted H.R.8970 in late May but didn’t hold a press briefing on the legislation until June 4. According to a release, the Gambling Disorder Health Study Act establishes “a comprehensive, multi-year investigation into the causes, development, and long-term effects of gambling disorder and to evaluate prevention, treatment, and intervention strategies.”

The statement also points out that “no federal agency is currently designated or funded to lead national research in this area.” The bill would address that in multiple ways by commissioning the study and requiring “the HHS Secretary to provide annual reporting to Congress on the study’s progress and provide policy recommendations.”

The study would get funding from a natural source of revenue in Congress. Use of tax revenue in this interest would be novel in Washington, D.C., though.

Federal gaming taxes would fund study

The U.S. government has collected taxes on sports wagering for decades, but such taxes have never been earmarked for studying the effects of gaming on the U.S. population. H.R.8970 would change that by devoting 10% of the sports betting taxes that Congress collects to pay for the proposed study for the first three years.

These taxes consist of a 0.25% on sportsbooks’ adjusted revenue and an annual per-employee flat $50 tax assessed on sportsbooks operators. In previous years, those assessments have combined for millions of dollars in revenue for the government.

The work those funds could produce would further the conversation around gambling-related harms as a public health concern. Other voices in the U.S. have already raised that concern.

Rise of scholarship addressing disordered gaming as public health issue

When a concern rises to the level of affecting large swaths of a population, even those who may not directly participate in related activities, it becomes a public health concern. More governmental and government-adjacent entities in the U.S. are taking that approach to gambling-related harms.

For example, the World Health Organization stated that “universal, population-wide public health approaches are required to prevent gambling harm” in December 2024. The National Institutes of Health released a special edition of its publication, Public Harms, on disordered gambling in July 2020.

In November 2024, The Lancet Public Health published a call for a response to gambling-related harms from a decided and explicit public health perspective. Furthermore, in June 2021, the Oregon Department of Health released its own study on the public health ramifications of gambling.

Many other U.S. jurisdictions have taken similar measures to address the issue of gambling-related harms as a public health concern within their borders. H.R.8970 could help the federal government in the U.S. catch up.

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