The bet takes seconds. A few taps, a game loading on a second screen, and suddenly an otherwise ordinary Saturday afternoon carries financial stakes. For millions of young men across the United States, that scenario has become routine since 2018, when the Supreme Court cleared the way for states to legalize sports wagering. What researchers are now finding is that the ritual doesn’t always stop with the bet. A study published in Health Economics draws a direct causal line between the spread of online sports betting and heavier drinking among young men, specifically those who were already binge drinking before their state legalized wagering. Using health survey data collected across all 50 states from 2016 through 2023, researchers found that legalizing online sports betting pushed binge-drinking frequency up by roughly 10 percent among men aged 35 and under who already reported binge episodes. Smoking rates, by contrast, stayed flat. “As sports betting continues to spread across states, these findings raise important public health concerns and highlight the need for policymakers to consider the broader behavioral …