“The Effect of Internet Gambling Laws on Suicide: Evidence from New Jersey”
Abstract:
I examine the effect of legalizing Internet gambling on suicide rates following the introduction of legal Internet gambling in New Jersey. The emergence and subsequent rapid growth of Internet gambling has raised significant public health questions and concerns. The relationship between Internet gambling and pathological gambling has been studied extensively. However, the link between them is not well understood. This study exploits a change in the legal status of Internet gambling to estimate the effects of Internet gambling on state level suicide rates using both a differences-in-differences model and a synthetic control model. I find no statistically significant effect of the law on suicides. Secondary analyses using Internet search data find evidence of an effect on mental health and addiction. These results are important because they show that, once endogenous correlation in Internet gambling participation is controlled for, the effects of its legalization on public health may diminish. This is in sharp contrast to the heft of existing literature and may help to better understand the link between Internet gambling and pathological gambling.