Sports gambling

See also: Gambling and the Bible

Sports gambling is a highly addictive form of gambling whereby someone bets on certain outcomes or aspects of sporting events. In June 2025, the Southern Baptist Convention adopted a strong resolution against sports gambling, and the liberal comedian John Oliver featured a segment in March against this betting. "The next opioid epidemic" and larger than the movie industry, observed a guest on the Tucker Carlson show on July 9, 2025: “They Should Be Ashamed” - Tucker’s Epic Rant Slamming Sleazy DraftKings and FanDuel. Investigations are finding corruption of professional sports by this.

“

One-quarter of sports bettors say they've been unable to pay a bill because of wagers they made. Some respondents say they bet their rent money on sporting events.

”

Greedy billionaire NFL owners rely on sports gambling and handouts at taxpayer expense to enrich themselves further:

“

Kansas lawmakers last year authorized bonds for up to 70% of the cost of new stadiums, paying them off over 30 years with revenues from sports betting, Kansas Lottery ticket sales, and new sales and alcohol taxes.

”

"Americans now wager roughly $150 billion a year on sports, and 48% of American men under 50 have an account on a digital sportsbook at sites like DraftKings, FanDuel, ESPNBet, and BetMGM, according to a Siena College survey." In addition:

“

[Sports gambling company] DraftKings [will] generate $6.3 billion in revenue [in 2025], up from $432 million in 2019. ... Rival FanDuel, owned by U.K.-based Flutter Entertainment, is forecast to have sales of $16.9 billion this year, up from 2019's $2.8 billion.

”

It is estimated that half of the sports gambling in the U.S. is on NFL games, and the Super Bowl is the single most gambled event annually.

In January 2025, opponents of making make Minnesota the 39th state to make it lawful to bet on sports explained as follows:

“

Researchers from UCLA and USC in October published a study using financial data from the credit reports of 7 million people to compare the financial health of residents of states with and without legal gambling over several years. In states with legal mobile sports betting, they found lower credit scores and higher likelihoods of bankruptcy, loan delinquency and debt collection.

”

Prior to May 2018, the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act prohibited sports gambling everywhere in the United States (except for Nevada which had already allowed it prior to the Act). In a challenge raised by several states, including New Jersey and Pennsylvania which were hoping to legalize sports gambling as a source of governmental revenue, the U.S. Supreme Court in its 6–3 decision in Murphy v. NCAA (May 14, 2018) struck down the Act, leaving the decision on whether or not to legalize the practice to the states. As a result of that Supreme Court decision, a third of American young men are addicted to sports betting as of 2022, and billions of dollars are wasted this way.

As explained by CNN in February 2023, a few days before the Super Bowl that year:

“

In 2018, the Supreme Court struck down a federal ban on commercial sports betting in most of the country. Thirty-three states have made sports gambling legal in the wake of the decision. Now, on Super Bowl Sunday, a record 50.4 million US adults are expected to bet on the game.

”

Sports gambling is considered a big "winner" due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a combination of state laws and a First Circuit federal appellate decision which opened the floodgates to it. The result is more hardship on families that can least afford it.

California referenda 2022

Two sports gambling initiatives in 2022 in California lost big.

Proposition 26 was to allow in-person sports gambling at Indian tribe casinos and four private horse racetracks. It lost 70%-30%.

Proposition 27 would have permitted online sports betting, and it lost 83%-17%.

Gambling in Texas

Texas has kept casinos out of the state as of 2023, but the acquisition of a majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks by the billionaire owner of a Las Vegas casino suggests a new avenue of pressure to legalize casinons in Texas aas explained by Forbes:

“

Casino Gambling Legislation In Texas Before the 2023 legislative session in Austin, [Mark] Cuban was already talking about a potential partnership with the Las Vegas Sands. Long interested in building a new venue to house the Mavericks, he told The Dallas Morning News that he envisioned any new arena as a centerpiece of a large Las Vegas-style casino and resort complex in December 2022. “My goal, and we’d partner with Las Vegas Sands, is when we build a new arena, it’ll be in the middle of a resort and casino,” Cuban said. “That’s the mission.”

”

Worst states

The worst states -- i.e., those having the most sports gambling -- the following starting with the largest volume of betting on sports:

1. New York
2. New Jersey
3. Nevada
4. Illinois

Illinois sports gambling

Legalized sports betting in Illinois skyrocketed since it began in March 2020, reaching $1 billion per month by October 2022. It is the fourth state to reach that disgraceful threshold, after Nevada, New Jersey, and New York.

See also

• Addiction