The Rise of Sports Betting

In the coming days, the country’s best men’s and women’s college basketball teams will clash in the N.C.A.A. tournament finals. For fans, these are some of the biggest events of the year — a chance to see the best young athletes in the highest-stakes games. They are also some of the most lucrative events for sports betting apps. Americans will legally wager nearly $3 billion this year during March Madness, the American Gaming Association estimates.

Six years ago, sports betting was illegal under federal law. Today, it is everywhere. N.B.A. and N.H.L. viewers are exposed to three gambling ads a minute, a recent study found. Commercial sports betting revenue has increased 12-fold since 2019, as this chart by my colleague Ashley Wu shows:

What happened? In 2018, the Supreme Court struck down a federal ban, concluding that it violated states’ rights. Thirty-eight states and the District of Columbia now allow gambling on games.

The old laws were strange in many ways. Other countries had allowed betting. The U.S. allowed it for some competitions, like horse racing. And millions of Americans were already betting on sports, regardless of its legality.

But the Supreme Court did not just let Americans place legal wagers. It also empowered a big industry to market sports betting apps and convince more people to gamble, through another set of rulings.

Enabling big business

Americans typically learn about free speech in the context of social and political issues. But starting in the 1970s, the Supreme Court has interpreted the First Amendment to protect advertisements. Now, if something is legal, it can be advertised, and governments can’t stop companies from marketing it. (There are some limits: Ads can’t be deceptive or misleading, for instance.)