You won’t believe how much Americans have bet over the last five years

Wayne Parry | Associated Press

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ — In the five years since the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for gambling in all 50 states, Americans have bet over $220 billion on sports with legal gambling outlets. We put the spotlight on bet protection.

Coming Sunday’s anniversary of the court’s ruling in a lawsuit filed by New Jersey, two-thirds of the nation now offers legal sports betting, with more states set to do so in the coming months or years. likely to participate.

This rapidly growing industry is far-reaching. Its ads reach most households in the United States, even during sporting events and non-sports programming. From repeated ads featuring Caesar’s characters discussing sports gambling with members of Manning’s football dynasty, and actor Jamie Foxx betting on sports between film set shoots. Few TV viewers have been spared.

“While the milestones of legalized sports betting so far have been impressive, the industry is yet to be fully realized. For example, the current accessibility for fans to make live micro-bets during the game is limited to other smartphone-based activities such as hailing a ride, buying stocks, and playing podcasts. Similar in functionality.”

On May 14, 2018, the Supreme Court ruled a lawsuit that began ten years ago in New Jersey as the longest long shot. It legalized sports betting in his four states only in 1991.

Since then, some once-unthinkable changes have taken place. Professional sports leagues battled tooth and nail in New Jersey’s final failure to prevent legal betting all the way to the Supreme Court. Some even have advertising and betting outlets in stadiums. Betting odds are now an integral part of many game broadcasts.

Legalizing sports betting has opened up opportunities such as additional tax revenue for the state, a small side stream of income for casinos and racetracks, and a way to keep many people away from the dangers of unregulated offshore gambling websites. .

It also created a problem: In the five years since sports betting was legalized and available on mobile phones, gambling addiction therapists have seen a significant increase in calls for help to hotlines. Keith White, executive director of the National Problem Gambling Council, said calls to the 800-GAMBLER helpline were down in the last five years as “the state launched the fastest and largest gambling expansion in history.” He said it increased by 15%.

Several NFL players have been suspended for betting on games, and some colleges affiliated with sports leagues have illegally marketed sports betting to students under the legal age of 21. Prompted to revise the policy.

Last week, regulators in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey ordered sportsbooks to suspend betting on the University of Alabama baseball team after suspicious activity was identified at the April 28 game between Alabama and Louisiana State University. The integrity of the gambling was again in the news when he ordered the Alabama baseball coach Brad Bohannon said the investigation began when one of the many companies that monitor sports betting data and other activity discovered suspicious activity and informed gambling regulators. Fired in. No criminal charges have been filed.

According to the American Gaming Association, the gambling industry’s national trade body, the $220 billion figure includes bets placed in most states through the end of March. This is up from $125 billion at stake at the four-year point.

Consider this: Sportsbooks typically keep around 10% of all money they process after paying out winning bets to their customers.

Achieving profitability has been a long and difficult road. FanDuel became the first company to report a profitable quarter in the second leg of 2022 and expects to be profitable in 2023. .

Sports betting has also kept the Meadowlands racetrack in upstate New Jersey, across the Hudson River from New York City, alive.

Jeff Gural, who runs a truck that includes a FanDuel sportsbook in East Rutherford, said:

“Without sports betting, I don’t think the Meadowlands would ever open up as a racetrack,” he said.

According to the American Gaming Association, the national trade body for the gambling industry, sportsbooks have stored $17 billion in winnings over the past five years.

During the same period, sports betting taxes on businesses generated about $3.6 billion. State and local governments he’s $3 billion, federal government he’s $570 million. Individual state takes are often equivalent to bucket drops.

Additional funding to state governments was used as a selling point for legal sports betting, but another goal was consumer protection. This allows customers to bet at government regulated institutions where deposits are safe and there is no risk of the sportsbook suddenly disappearing. someone’s cash.

An avalanche of sports betting advertising has also caused a backlash, to the point that the gambling industry and most major professional sports leagues have adopted stricter standards for their own advertising. It was seen as doing something, not just trying to do something, and was widely seen as an attempt to sidestep the threat of government regulation of sports betting advertising.

Five years later, only two companies, FanDuel and Draft Kings, control more than 70% of the US legal sports betting market, according to gambling analytics firm Eilers & Krejcik. DraftKings has over 25% but just under 46% of the market. BetMGM has nearly 12%, Caesars Entertainment has 6.7%, and no other company has him above 2.4%.

What will the next five years look like? Eilers & Krejcik’s Chris Krafcik predicts more multifaceted deals between teams, leagues, stadiums and between betting operators and media companies, hotel chains and beverage companies.

Krafcik said sports betting companies could develop VIP-focused retail outlets to expand “hyper-casual” online betting.

The trend of gambling companies to set up sportsbooks in or next to professional sports stadiums is likely to continue. Sportsbooks as a whole may cut back on promotional spending to keep costs down. And the outlook for online sports betting in California, the nation’s largest state, and Florida, which has been embroiled in lawsuits, should remain uncertain for the foreseeable future.

The industry is also constantly coming up with new ways to bet. One of the fastest growing trends he has is the so-called microbetting. In baseball, it can be about how fast the next pitch will be. whether it runs or not. Whether the ball is caught and out, a single, double, triple or home run.

Those who deal with problem gambling are particularly concerned about this type of bet, as it can lure gamblers into one bet after another in a very short period of time and quickly lead to large losses.