Showing posts with label legal sports bets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label legal sports bets. Show all posts

Monday, October 6, 2025

As sports betting explodes, experts push for a public health approach to addiction; NPR, September 30, 2025

 , NPR; As sports betting explodes, experts push for a public health approach to addiction

"RICHARD BLUMENTHAL: The sophistication and complexity of betting has become staggering.

BROWN: That's U.S. Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. He's co-sponsor of the SAFE Bet Act, which would impose federal standards on sports gambling, like no advertising during live sports and no tempting bonus bet promotions.

BLUMENTHAL: States are unable to protect their consumers from excessive and abusive offers and sometimes misleading pitches. They simply don't have the resources or the jurisdiction.

BROWN: The gambling industry is lobbying against the bill. Joe Maloney is with the American Gaming Association. He says federal rules would be a slap in the face to state regulators.

JOE MALONEY: You have the potential to just dramatically, one, usurp the state's authority and then, two, freeze the industry in place.

BROWN: He says the industry acknowledges that gambling is addictive for some people, which is why it developed a model called Responsible Gaming. That includes messages warning people to stop playing when it's no longer fun, and reminding them the odds are very low.

MALONEY: And there's very direct messages, such as, you will lose money here."

Sunday, October 5, 2025

America goes gambling; Quartz, October 5, 2025

Jackie Snow, Quartz; America goes gambling


[Kip Currier: This Quartz article America Goes Gambling is a timely one about a significant AI-driven development: massive growth in online gambling, sports betting, and gambling addictions after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a de facto ban on these activities (outside of Nevada and tribal casinos) in 2018's Murphy v. NCAA decision.

I spoke on the issue of AI-enhanced online gambling and sports betting at the September 2025 Faithful Futures: Guiding AI with Wisdom and Witness conference in Minneapolis and am currently finishing a chapter for publication on this emerging topic.]


[Excerpt]

"On any given Sunday this football season, Americans are placing millions in legal sports bets, a level of widespread wagering that would have been almost impossible a decade ago when only Nevada offered legal sportsbooks.

Today's football slate represents the peak of a sports betting boom that has fundamentally altered how Americans watch games. Sunday's action is part of an industry that's grown from $4.9 billion in total annual wagers in 2017 to almost $150 billion in 2024. But beneath the Sunday spectacle lies a growing concern about addiction specialists reporting record demand for gambling help as the line between sports entertainment and financial risk becomes increasingly blurred.

The transformation has been swift and dramatic. When the Supreme Court struck down the federal sports betting ban in Murphy v. NCAA in 2018, legal sports betting was confined to Nevada and tribal casinos. Today, legal sports betting operates in 39 states and Washington, D.C., with more statehouses considering laws that would greenlight it."