Legalizing Sports Betting Was a Mistake

The Slow Death of American Sports by a Thousand Bets

As I settle in to watch the big game, my screen is suddenly flooded with a barrage of colorful advertisements. "Bet now!" they scream, promising free money and unbeatable odds. Welcome to the new normal of American sports viewing, where betting has become as ubiquitous as the athletes on the field. But at what cost?

Sports betting, once relegated to the shadows, has exploded into the mainstream, fundamentally altering the landscape of American sports. The rapid rise of legalized sports betting negatively impacts the fan experience, threatening the very integrity of the games we love.

Historical Context: How Corporations Shaped American Sports

America’s professional sports are as much a result of corporate influence as much as they are an organic outgrowth of Americans’ love of sports. Advertising and Television have inextricably shaped America’s professional sports. Take, for example, the sport of Basketball. The original rules, created by Dr.Naismith in 1892, originally called for 2 fifteen minute halves with 5 minutes of rest in between (Naismith, 1892). Fast forward to 1951, around the time the post-war boom allowed the middle class to buy a TV for their house, and the game had been altered to be played in 4 quarters, in 1954 they increased the length of each quarter. Although seemingly innocuous, these alterations lengthen broadcasts and cause more natural stoppages in the game, allowing TV networks to show more ads. The most clear-cut example of this in basketball would be the development of TV time-outs, wherein teams are forced to take timeouts just so that the broadcaster can show ads. Basketball was as shaped by the networks that displayed it as by the people who played it (Naismith, 1892).

Comparison with International Sports

Contrast this with association football (soccer) in England's Premier League. Despite its growing commercialization, football remains suboptimal for advertisers. Games consist of two continuous 45-minute halves with a 15-minute break, offering few natural stoppages for ad insertion (FIFA Rules and Reports).

Unlike the MLB, where significant portions of game time are spent not playing baseball – a dream scenario for advertisers – soccer's continuous play limits commercial opportunities. Even during natural breaks like injuries or set pieces, many broadcasters opt not to show ads, a stark contrast to the NBA's practice of squeezing in commercials during every free throw.

The Legal Landscape: From Prohibition to Legalization

Similar to how the other norms in American sports evolved because of corporate influence, so did the encouragement of sports betting. For decades, sports betting was largely prohibited in the United States, with Nevada being a notable exception. This changed dramatically in 2018 when the Supreme Court struck down the federal law prohibiting sports betting, allowing individual states to legalize and regulate the practice (NJ Attorney General's Office).

This decision opened the floodgates for a new era in American sports.

The Rise of Sports Betting in America

My largest concern with the betting industry is with how it’s being implemented. It seems like there is little to no regulation on bets and how betting offers are characterized. These companies love to dangle free offers of deposit matches or other promotions that capitalize on people’s greed (Sunkara, 2024). Despite not liking the industry, just today I was almost tempted to deposit into BetMGM because I got a TikTok ad telling me our deposits are being matched 100% up to $1,000. Several states, such as Washington DC, even allow companies to fully or partially deduct promotional expenses from their taxes. My issue with this, other than the fact that it drives people to gamble who might not have gambled before, is that the industry is so unequally built (Sunkara, 2024). The sports betting industry is so lopsided that it makes Wall Street look fair- and that’s saying something.

Betting Versus Investment

I’ve heard the idea that people who invest shouldn’t throw stones at sports bettors because stocks are just gambling too. I disagree with that concept. While all speculative behavior can be reduced to equivalency, sports betting is more rigged and unethical than Wall Street. If we want to compare a bet to an investment in a security, the comparison falls apart pretty quickly. Publicly traded stocks are subject to regulation and offer a far more balanced return profile. In other words, if you place a shitty bet that doesn’t hit, you’re out of that money no matter what; whereas, if you make a shitty investment although there is a chance for you to lose your money, there is a chance, however small, of your investment recovering. Not to mention, bets do not offer dividends like stocks do. The crux of the difference between a regular investment and a bet is the way risks are managed. Despite how extractive Wall Street still is, because of the 2008 crash, there has been an increased emphasis on financial education. All investors now receive explicit breakdowns of potential risks upon investing and it’s becoming more commonplace for firms to explicitly mention that investors bear the risk of losing all their money. In addition, regulatory watchdog organizations like the SEC or FINRA are supposed to keep Wall Street in check and continuously monitor for overly risky behavior (Investor.org).

The Dark Side of Sports Betting

In contrast, sports betting has little to no education regarding risks. Sports betting ads make betting seem so innocuous and fun. Risks and disclaimers are put in fine text at the bottom of our screen and sports betting apps are presented as mobile games, instead of risky financial decisions. A less informed person would struggle to distinguish a sports betting commercial from a Candy Crush commercial. Sports bettors are hardly likely to pay attention to disclaimers or care if they get a free $100 to bet with. There are resources like helplines or ads for support to help guide people about the dangers of gambling addiction but there are few resources to help people not fall into the trap in the first place (Kang, 2024). The information does not necessarily even have to say that gambling is bad, it just needs to help people be more aware of its consequences. For example, more information about the benefits of hedging or only betting with small units could be useful to the first-time sports bettor; however, in the status quo little of that information is explicitly shared, and there are precious few barriers to letting companies portray sports betting as a fun little game (Kang, 2024). The house always wins in the end.

Risks to Game Integrity

The impact of this as a fan is that we have to deal with sports betting shoved in our faces everywhere. American sports have become inextricable with betting- I watch so many sports that it feels like I see sports betting ads even in my sleep now. Beyond ruining the fan experience by force-feeding us betting odds, betting also enables far more cheating. Take, for example, the case of Jontay Porter who got banned from the NBA for life due to getting someone to place bets on his behalf (Sunkara, 2024). In the case of Porter, he was caught because of the extensive real-time monitoring but I have huge doubts about its efficacy overall. Porter’s bet sizing and his obvious faking of his eye injury make him stick out like a sore thumb but I question whether detection services can catch more innocuous cases(Peltz, 2024). Especially in cases where the bet sizing is smaller and the player throws the game less obviously, I struggle to believe all the players betting can be caught. Even if most players who bet on their games are successfully caught, can they catch all the refs that might influence the game for their bets to hit? Referees are incredibly influential and it is much tougher to catch a referee who makes a 50-50 ruling in favor of the side he is betting on in any game. Sports betting has created an easy means of opportunity for unscrupulous people to control the outcomes of sporting events(Kang, 2024).

The Social Cost of Sports Betting

There’s a big reason why sports betting was federally illegal until 2018, everyone knew that it would come with negative consequences. Yet, under intense corporate pressure, they cracked and gave in. In 2023 alone, Americans spent 120 billion dollars on gambling, with 39% of men and 20% of women between 18-49 gambling on sports(Sunkara, 2024). Despite what should be a significant increase in tax revenues is only minor for many states because companies pressured a lot of states into low tax rates(Lipton and Vogel, 2022). Sports betting quite literally does not benefit anyone except for those who make millions of people’s misfortune(Lipton and Vogel, 2022). Proponents of betting might try to argue that legal companies should take the money than bettors resorting to illegal gambling but honestly speaking, people who say that probably don’t know much about illegal gambling. For one to gamble illegally, one needs to be fairly tech-savvy and have knowledge of cryptocurrencies; by comparison, to gamble legally, you just need to be in a legal state, have a phone, be an adult, and have a pulse. I am doubtful of the idea that the millions of people who have been tempted to gamble just because they saw a fun ad that gave them free money are hardened gamblers who need to have a legal space to bet or they will disappear back into criminality, I bet most of those people, except for the most addicted, would not bother with the hassle of gambling illegally. I am genuinely scared about the consequences betting will have on American sports. It seems to be just another sad development of our increasingly dystopian mixed economy that puts a few people’s wealth over most people’s welfare.