Does legalized online sports betting strain family finances? A recent study, “Gambling Away Stability: Sports Betting’s Impact on Vulnerable Households,” argues yes, but the conclusion reflects the moral assumptions of the authors rather than the statistical evidence.

That’s not to say this is a bad study. It is a good and useful one, but it would be better if its conclusion were more neutral and laid out the importance of making investing a more compelling proposition for retail investors. Also, there are some significant issues with the data that argue for treating the results more cautiously than the authors do, and far more cautiously than media reports suggest.