The relationship between gambling and health has important economic and public policy implications. We develop causal evidence on this relationship exploiting regional variation in access to legal gambling. Empirical models treat gambling as an endogenous regressor in explaining variation in health outcomes. Results from instrumental variable and bivariate probit models show recreational gambling has no or a negative impact on the probability of having certain chronic health conditions and a positive impact on life satisfaction. Past research generally found a positive association between problem gambling and adverse health outcomes. The generation of some positive health benefits provides important context for the expansion of legal sports betting in the USA following the repeal of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act in 2018.

中文翻译：

---

休闲赌博对健康和幸福的影响

赌博与健康之间的关系具有重要的经济和公共政策含义。我们利用获得合法赌博的区域差异来开发关于这种关系的因果证据。经验模型将赌博视为解释健康结果变化的内生回归量。工具变量和双变量概率模型的结果表明，休闲赌博对患某些慢性健康状况的概率没有影响或有负面影响，而对生活满意度有积极影响。过去的研究普遍发现问题赌博与不良健康结果之间存在正相关。在 2018 年废除职业和业余体育保护法之后，一些积极的健康福利的产生为美国合法体育博彩的扩张提供了重要的背景。