But not everyone is celebrating gambling’s newfound legitimacy.Ĭritics argue that the sudden expansion in sports betting will inevitably lead to an explosion of gambling addiction across the country. The rapid expansion of sports betting has been a boon for sportsbooks, leagues and states that have placed hefty taxes on the burgeoning industry.

Voters in California will weigh in on two separate initiatives in November’s election that would lift the state’s ban on sports betting - one that would permit in-person wagers at tribal casinos, another that would allow online betting statewide. (Disclosure: Yahoo Sports has a relationship with BetMGM.) Since the Supreme Court threw out the national ban, Americans have wagered more than $150 billion in total on sporting events, according to a tally compiled by Legal Sports Report. This new legal ground has allowed sports gambling to grow into a massive industry in just a few years. Some allow bets to be placed online, for example, while others only allow in-person gambling. Today, more than 30 states and Washington, D.C., permit sports gambling in some form, but the specifics on how and where those bets can be made varies dramatically. It took less than a month for the first state to begin allowing sports wagers and a flood of states quickly followed suit.

That decision cleared states to make their own decisions about whether to allow gambling on sports. In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that a law establishing a nationwide ban on commercial sports betting was unconstitutional.

It still happened, of course, but bets were either placed through friends, bookies or offshore betting sites. Until recently, sports gambling was effectively banned in every state but Nevada. Sports betting, a practice that was illegal nearly everywhere in the United States for decades, has exploded into the mainstream over the past four years.

Is gambling amongst friends legal