Currently, 38 states and the District of Columbia have legalized sports gambling. The Minnesota Legislature is expected to debate legalization again in 2025 after failing to get a bill passed in last year’s session. 

The 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling opened the door for states to authorize sports gambling and wagering on pro and college sports. Since then, this has also brought concerns about problem gambling, especially for Blacks and low-income folks. 

A recent U.S. Senate hearing on sports betting included testimonies from individuals including NCAA president Charlie Baker. A statement from the American Gaming Association criticized the session for not including individuals from the gaming industry and said that Americans bet more than $121 billion on sports in 2023. 

The hearing ended as do most things in Congress these days with nothing but back and forth talk and no action. The WNBA and women’s sports have become a boom business for sports betting. FanDuel reported last spring that it received the most wagers of all time for women’s sports during the NCAA women’s basketball tournament. FanDuel and DraftKings later became official sponsors for the WNBA. 

In the U. S, the 25-34 years age segment (34%) has the most prominent sports betters in 2024; second is 35-44 (31%). 

Baker wants to see federal regulations on sports gambling, including a ban on what are known as proposition bets — wagers on anything besides the final outcome of a game. These types of bets are legal in about half the states with sports betting.

A 2023 NCAA survey commissioned by Baker found that gambling is prevalent among young adults on college campuses. The survey also found that 68% of Blacks engage in betting, which the NCAA says was the highest percentage among the demographics surveyed: 63% of Latinos, 55%  of Asians, and 54% of whites.

A working paper by researchers at UCLA and USC in August found that legal online sports betting led to lower credit scores and higher rates of bankruptcies. Another working paper said that legalized sports betting drained household finances more than other types of gambling. 

Nonetheless, sports betting is here to stay, declares Travis Singleton of Speaker Reporter. “It won’t be going anywhere,” he reiterated. Singleton also pointed out that sports gambling and fantasy sports betting are different. 

Statista.com defines fantasy sports as “a game in which the participants elect a team from players competing in a professional sports league. Points are gained depending on how successful a fantasy sports team’s players perform in real life sporting events.” It says that most fantasy sports players are males, and found that in 2023 Latinos (17%) and Blacks (13%) are the highest non-white fantasy sports players. 

“Fantasy sports is where you’re dependent on a player to get certain stats. … When it comes to sports gambling, now you’re depending on a player’s real life stats in order to get paid,” continued Singleton. 

“I think the problem with gambling now is that it’s so accessible. You can download an app. You can get brothers and sisters that are gambling on rent money. That’s when it becomes a problem. It’s high risk. … It’s the personal choice.” 

Singleton believes that if Minnesota gets legal sports betting it will help in generating tax revenue as it does in his home state of Massachusetts. “Sports gambling won’t be going away at no time soon,” he concluded.

Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.

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