News

The UMass Amherst research known as the Social and Economic Impacts of Gambling in Massachusetts (SEIGMA) is coming to an end after more than a decade of unprecedented studies, amassing a deep well of data that will inform the field in perpetuity.

Dr. Rachel Volberg was interviewed by the Financial Times for a story on online gaming and sports betting. 

"There are very few social cues to let you know you’ve been gambling too long online. And with 24/7 availability, “it can be very easy to become untethered from reality”, Rachel Volberg, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who’s been studying problem gambling since 1985, told me. "

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Dr Rachel Volberg has contributed to a recent publication in JAMA titled The Hidden Health Costs Associated With Legalized Sports Gambling. 

Rachel Volberg was one of a panel of experts discussing sports betting in The Metro podcast titled "Is money in sports good for the game?".

Expert on Camera

Gambling on the NCAA basketball tournaments has become a multi-billion dollar business, raising concerns about problem gambling, which is twice as common among sports bettors as other gamblers.

On March 17, 2025, SciLine interviewed Dr. Rachel Volberg is a research professor of epidemiology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

The Division on Addiction at the Cambridge Health Alliance is once again hosting the Annual Gambling Disorder Screening Day on Tuesday, March 11, 2025.

On February 28, 2025, Dr Rachel Volberg was part of an expert panel presentation during the DASGR Gambling Data Access Webinar Feb 2025 hosted by Morgan State University to discuss "High-Stakes Revolution: The Hidden Costs of Round-the-Clock Online Gambling: Economic, Social, and Psychological Impacts". 

Rachel Volberg joined Daria Ukhova at the University of Glasgow in publishing an invited commentary in JAMA Internal Medicine titled: "Gambling Harms in the Era of Legal Gambling Expansion—A Growing Health Problem". Ukhova and Volberg argue that "[t]o advance our understanding of the health implications of the expansion of legalized gambling, it is essential to recognize the full scope and nature of gambling harms and acknowledge the critical role the medical community must play in addressing them. In addition, gambling must be recognized as a public health problem, and we must identify