The U.S. already has a gambling epidemic—24 hour stock trading would only make it worse

In 2018, the Supreme Court legalized sports gambling. Six years later, gambling addiction is approaching a
national epidemic
. Numerous state surveys show an
increase
in the incidence and prevalence of gambling addiction, and nearly every state has seen increased demand in recent years for treatment services for gambling addiction. The National Council on Problem Gambling
estimates
that approximately 2.5 million adults in the U.S. are severely addicted to gambling.

Now, unless regulators act, the same factors that got Americans addicted to sports betting may get Americans addicted to stock trading. These factors are technology and availability.

Technology allows firms to use tailored push notifications about stock prices and other behavioral prompts to target individual investors and induce them to trade
excessively
. These technological advancements would be worrisome enough in their own right, but now the SEC is poised to allow stocks to trade
around the clock
. The use of advanced technologies that can help financial firms induce frequent trading by retail investors, combined with the ability of retail investors to trade at all hours of the day or night, has the potential to create retail trading addicts.

This combination is what has led to the gambling addiction epidemic. As with stocks, sports betting apps
use artificial intelligence
to entice fans to bet. Features such as tailored push notifications
keep bettors betting
, and sportsbooks hire data analysts to figure out the
optimal strategies
for targeting individual gamblers with the right incentives at the optimal times.

The epidemic of gambling is also due to the ability of bettors to place bets
around the clock
. Human nature
dictates
that people engage in riskier behaviors at night. They can now do just that wherever they are, all with the
touch of a finger
on a smartphone.

With sports betting, the ease of betting from a phone at any time of day combined with the techniques sports betting apps use to induce betting has proven to be
an irresistible combination
. The battle of mobile app versus human willpower has proven to be
a total mismatch
.

If financial firms pair AI-charged incentives with around-the-clock stock trading, we can expect retail investors will suffer in the same way as sports gambling addicts. This is not least because the target demographics for both sports betting and around-the-clock trading are
young men
, who are more likely to trade and to engage in financially risky behavior.

Unfortunately, this concern is not theoretical. Both the
pandemic
and the
GameStop/meme stock
trading frenzy led some retail investors to get hooked on trading due to the ease with which they could trade and the game-like features of trading apps. And there is evidence that the ability to trade overnight is addictive. The proponents of 24/7 stock trading
equate
it to cryptocurrency trading, which occurs around the clock. But an underreported element of crypto—aside from its prevalence in
frauds
,
scams
, and
abuses
—is that it can lead to
addiction
.