Wanna Bet?

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If you’d like to make a wager on just about anything, you now have ample opportunity to do so. You can go to a local casino or just pick up your phone or computer, and risk-taking is right there at your fingertips.

Gambling used to be the purview of casinos in Nevada or Atlantic City or your local, neighborhood bookie. Casino gambling required some genuine effort, as you had to actually get to the casino. Yes, those places were controlled by some unsavory folks as they developed, crooked politicians greasing the skids for even more crooked and far more dangerous gangsters. Eventually, corporate America realized there was money to be made, lots of it, without the chicanery and skimming associated with the industry.

Soon, along came lotteries, and everybody could gamble from the convenience of some local store. In 1994, Antigua and Barbuda started the first offshore gambling casino, inviting us all to play via computer or phone. Congress did not like the “offshore” part of that and tried to rein it in, but things changed dramatically in 2010 when Nevada started online gambling for everything but sports. (They still had in-house sports books, just not online.)

Just a year later, our Department of Justice decided the Federal Wire Act of 1961 actually applied only to betting on sports and virtually all other online gambling became legal. Then, in 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act saying the federal government could not force the states to enforce it. As a result, states could allow online gambling, including on sports, and 30 states now allow sports betting online.

You can bet on pretty much any aspect of any sport. Will that golfer make that putt? Will the next pitch be a strike? Who will score the most points in the second quarter? How many aces will be served in the Wimbledon final? In what round will the knockout occur? There is really no limit to what kinds of gambles you can take, and we take a lot.

The American Gaming Association says Americans bet somewhere between $22 billion and $30 billion last year, a 26 percent increase from 2024. About half of that was wagered on sports. Maybe you can see the potential problem here.

Wagering on sports has always existed. One assumes there was wagering on chariot races and gladiator fights, but until recently, it wasn’t legal unless you were at the sports book of a casino. And it has always been a potential problem.

In 1919, the World Series was marred by a cheating scandal involving the Chicago White Sox, some of whom were paid to play poorly. Shoeless Joe Jackson, one of the great hitters in baseball history, was caught up in the scandal and, along with several of his teammates, banned from baseball for life. (It should be noted Jackson and the seven teammates accused with him were tried but acquitted of all charges.)

In the 1950s, it was point-shaving in college basketball in which players from a dozen colleges and universities were accused or admitted to accepting bribes to manipulate basketball scores.

Professional sports leagues and the NCAA became so paranoid about the potential of gambling destroying the integrity of multiple sports that betting on games in your league or conference was treated with nearly the same harsh consequence as performance enhancing drug use was. Joe Namath was once suspended from the NFL not because he engaged in gambling but because he owned a bar some shady characters frequented.

Pete Rose, the all-time leader for base hits in major league baseball, was banned for having bet on games as both a player and manager. (Rose, who died in 2024, has now been reinstated by MLB.)

In what may be the ultimate abuse, quarterback Brendan Sorsby, who played at Indiana and Cincinnati before transferring to Texas Tech, has acknowledged placing 90,000 wagers—that’s not a typo—while a college athlete, including on his own team. (Sorsby has since withdrawn from Texas Tech.)

Gambling has been an issue for lots of non-athletes, too. The National Council on Problem Gambling reports a 56 percent increase in calls for help since just 2023. And according to The Guardian, participation in Gamblers Anonymous meetings has increased tenfold this decade.

Debt.org says the average male with a gambling addiction or problem owes between $55,000 and $90,000 in losses, and the average female owes about $15,000. About 20 percent of compulsive gamblers file for bankruptcy, but nearly all report they have taken cash advances from their credit card or even taken money from their retirement accounts or a child’s college fund.

The next gambling scandal could be in sports or politics—it’s just a keystroke away. You can bet on it.

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