In the final of the N.C.A.A. tournament, the ideal men’s and women’s college basketball teams in the country play each other. Fans look forward to these events all year because they give them a chance to see the ideal young players play in the most important games. Also, these games bring in a lot of money for sports betting apps. It is thought by the American Gaming Association that Americans officially bet about $3 billion during March Madness in 2024.
In 2018, it was against the law to bet on sports. It’s everywhere now. A recent study found that people who watch NBA and NHL games see three gambling ads every minute. Since 2019, commercial sports betting has brought in 12 times as much money.
What happened? In 2018, the Supreme Court threw out a federal rule because it was unfair to states. 38 states and the District of Columbia now let people bet on games.
There were a lot of strange things about the old rules. Bets had been allowed in other countries. The United States let it happen for some events, like horse races. And millions of Americans were already betting on sports, even though it wasn’t allowed.
But the Supreme Court did not just let people in the US legally bet. Through another set of rules, it also gave big businesses the power to sell sports betting apps and get more people to play, for example, on https://ind1xbet.com/registration/ and similar sources.
Making Big Business Possible
Most of the time, Americans learn about free speech in terms of politics and social problems. However, since the 1970s, the Supreme Court has said that the First Amendment protects ads. Now, if something is allowed, businesses can sell it without being stopped by the government. (There are some rules, like ads can’t be dishonest or false.)
People who support this legal model say that advertising helps people make smart choices. Eugene Volokh, a law expert at U.C.L.A., told me, “The court has taken the view that freedom of speech should generally let people decide for themselves what to believe without the government trying to say that these are bad messages.” This means that people should be able to figure out how to legally bet their money on sports if they want to.
What about tobacco? It is true that cigarette companies can’t market, even though their goods are legal. But this isn’t like other times. In 1998, executives decided not to sell cigarettes as part of a strange legal deal with the states. Tobacco companies have the right to promote under the First Amendment, even if they do something else.
Based on the decisions, the only surefire way to stop a product from being sold to a lot of people is to ban it. Jennifer Pomeranz, a public health lawyer at New York University, said that politicians have a “weird incentive” to try to get around the First Amendment by not making things legal or by banning items. She brought up the fact that marijuana is illegal at the federal level, even though many states have approved it.
What Will Happen?
The American Gaming Association says that ads for sports betting lead people from illegal to legal markets. This helps buyers avoid scams and brings in more tax money for the government.
But advertising also makes more people want to bet. People who are recovering users say that the nonstop ads make them want to use again even when all they want to do is watch a game. In states that allow sports betting, more people are calling gaming helplines.
The sports have also changed since gaming became legal. Think about prop bets, where people try to guess how a player will do in a game. Fans have made threats against players who don’t do what they think will happen. And athletes can bet on themselves and then change how they play to try to cash out, which is what NBA player Jontay Porter is said to have done. When people do things like this, it could hurt the fairness of a game. Because of these things, Louisiana banned prop bets on college sports this week.
Bets on sports can also give players other kinds of headaches. The famous baseball player Shohei Ohtani is in the middle of a scandal because his former translator is said to have stolen millions of dollars to pay for bets. That wrongdoing includes betting markets that aren’t allowed.
As sports betting grows, these problems will happen more often. But the gaming business wants as many people to play as possible, no matter what. And politicians can’t do everything they want to because of decisions made by the Supreme Court.
