And after the Supreme Court gave its blessing to sports betting in a 2018 decision, more than 30 states have approved plans to establish a legal sports gambling sector. The US now has roughly 1,000 casinos across the country, at least one in almost every state. Professional sports leagues wouldn’t even put a team in Las Vegas, fearing mere proximity to the nation’s gambling capital. Gambling was verboten in professional sports, still haunted by the specter of the Black Sox scandal of 1919 and the Pete Rose scandal 70 years later. Until the 1980s, there were really only two places in the country where you could walk into a physical, legal casino and place bets: Nevada and Atlantic City, New Jersey. The first state to establish a lottery was New Hampshire in 1964. It’s becoming an inextricable part of sports fandom: ESPN, the flagship sports television network, licensed its own brand to a sportsbook last month.Ī few decades ago, all this would have been unthinkable. It’s endorsed by cultural institutions like the NFL. Gambling is sanctioned by the government - especially state and local governments, which are guaranteed to make money as gambling expands. Surveys indicate upward of 70 percent of US residents participated in some kind of gambling - whether the lottery or a raffle or blackjack or a sports wager - within the past year. If you’d rather put your money on a presidential election, the proliferation of online prediction markets means you can. You don’t need a casino to play poker, but if you want the feel of felt and plastic chips on your fingers, one is likely nearby. Want to bet on tonight’s NFL game? There’s an app for that. Most of us carry a mini-casino around in our pocket. Americans can now gamble on anything, anytime, anywhere.

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