Sponsor
Andrea Salinas
Representative · D-OR
Representative · D-OR
The bill expands federal support for gambling-prevention, treatment, and research—helping people with gambling problems and improving oversight—but does so with ongoing taxpayer-backed funding that may fluctuate year-to-year and could divert limited behavioral health resources from other needs.
People with gambling problems would gain expanded access to state-funded prevention and treatment services through new SAMHSA grants.
Researchers would receive new federal research funding to study gambling addiction, improving knowledge of effective treatments and interventions.
States that apply could receive funds redistributed from nonapplying States so participating States don't lose federal dollars for gambling-related services.
If available federal funds are limited, directing allocations to gambling programs could reduce shares available for other behavioral health priorities, potentially harming other patients and health systems.
Taxpayers would bear an ongoing cost because grant funding is tied to a share of prior-year excise tax receipts for FY2025–FY2034.
States could face unpredictable, fluctuating grant amounts because funding varies with prior-year excise tax receipts, complicating budgeting for state programs.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Authorizes SAMHSA state grants and NIDA research grants for gambling addiction, funded by specified shares of the prior-year Treasury estimate of §4401 receipts for FY2025–FY2034.
Official title: To authorize the Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use to award formula grants to the States to address gambling addiction, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 7, 2025 by Andrea Salinas · Last progress February 7, 2025
Creates a federal grant program to help states deliver treatment and recovery services for gambling addiction and authorizes separate research grants on gambling addiction. Funding is authorized for FY2025–FY2034 and is tied to specified percentages of the Treasury's prior-year estimate of receipts from the federal excise tax under 26 U.S.C. § 4401; the bill also requires an HHS report to Congress on program effectiveness within three years. Grants to states are allocated using the same share formula SAMHSA uses for its existing block grants, with unused state shares reallocable to applying states. The National Institute on Drug Abuse is authorized to award research grants on gambling addiction funded from a smaller, defined share of the same tax estimate.