Abt was born on December 9, 1942, in Brooklyn, New York. She was raised in
Franklin Square, New York. Her father was the president of a metal-castings foundry and her mother was the office manager and bookkeeper. She graduated from H. Frank Carey High School and in 1963 received a BA in social science from
Hofstra University. She received a master's from
Penn State, and her PhD from
Temple University. By 1994, Abt was a professor at Penn State, and continuing to study and comment on the negative effects of gambling. In 1997, she published the book
Coming After Oprah: Cultural Fallout in the Age of the TV Talk Show with Leonard Mustazza. ==Personal life and death==