Sports Betting Is Legal. Watch Out.
Punters are welcome in eight states and counting. Here’s how to prevent a disaster.
Careful, dudes.
Photographer: Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images
Since ancient Rome, gambling on athletic events has been a fun, popular and hugely ill-advised pastime. Now states across the U.S. are racing to legalize it. They should remember that the benefits of this enterprise are limited, the risks large, and the social costs entirely unpredictable.
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal law that had effectively banned sports betting outside of Nevada for nearly three decades. Since then, eight states have approved legal wagering, and another 20 or so are considering it. But as Justice Samuel Alito wrote in striking down the ban: “Americans have never been of one mind about gambling.”