In the Headlines, Bet On It, Down the Stretch & Don't Bet On It

In the Headlines, Bet On It, Down the Stretch & Don’t Bet On It

In the Headlines, Bet On It, Down the Stretch & Don’t Bet On It https://aepc.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/iStock-465626215-scaled.jpeg 2560 1696 AEPC Health AEPC Health //aepc.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/AEPC-LOGO-v1.png March 25, 2023 March 25, 2023

Want to Bet?

March Madness, the annual NCAA Tournament to determine the Division I men’s and women’s college basketball national champion, is in full swing! In the men’s tournament, Sweet 16 competition continued Friday with teams vying to advance to the next round, the Elite 8. The Final 4 games that follow on April 1 will be by no means for fools, as the winners advance to men’s national championship on April 3. For the women, the championship game is set for April 2nd.

Die hard college basketball fans and “tournament only” fans have a tradition of trying to pick winners of each game, or bracket. With 68 teams competing in the men’s tournament, the odds of correctly guessing a full NCAA tournament bracket are 1 in 120.2 billion!

For many, March Madness is a fun time to pit their bracket picking skills against those of family, friends or with co-workers with perhaps a modest monetary pool or other prize going to the winner. But the NCAA tournament is also a big business. In 2022, 45 million Americans wagered an estimated $3.1 billion on the tournament, according to the American Gaming Association. By the end of the 2023 NCAA tournament, an estimated one in four Americans will have wagered $15.5 billion in bets on the various games.

It’s not a coincidence that March is Problem Gambling Awareness Month as betting on the NCAA tournament and other gambling continues to grow. For some individuals, sports gambling can become an addiction that leads to financial problems, ruins personal and professional relationships and harms the gambler’s mental health. According to the National Council on Problem Gambling, around 2 million U.S. adults (1%) meet the criteria for severe gambling problems in a given year. Another 4-6 million (2-3%) meet some but not all of the diagnostic criteria and are considered to have mild or moderate gambling problems.

Check out Bet on It to read more about problem gambling!

Happy reading,

Suzanne Daniels

In the Headlines: patients want test results, beating opioid trends, & E. coli causing UTIs.
Bet On It: risks of sports betting, gambling disorder risk factors, & gambling addiction.
Down the Stretch: what you need to know about the end of the public health emergency and national emergency on May 11th.
Don’t Bet On It: including my personal favorite, Loud music was blamed for hearing loss in her 40s.