JOHN LINDROOS
The popularity and accessibility of online sports betting has increased after the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2018, giving states the freedom to regulate their own sports gambling laws. Sports betting is legal in 38 states, 30 of which allow online sports betting.
According to a Statista report, over 25 million people were actively online sports betting in 2022. In a 2022 Pew Research Center survey of 6,034 adults, 19% claimed they personally bet money on sports within the last 12 months. This survey was conducted four years after PASPA was overturned.
While sports betting is both good for the economics of sports leagues and broadcasts, and make games more entertaining for viewers, its side effects towards users and athletes are detrimental to the future of sports.
Fans can place bets and watch the results in the comfort of their homes with a simple tap of their screens using gambling apps on their phones. Professional sports leagues like the NFL and the NBA advertise online sports betting, as it is very common for sports leagues to be sponsored by prominent betting companies, like FanDuel and DraftKings. Betting apps and betting lines are advertised during pre-game, mid-game, at half-time and post game segments of sports broadcasts.
From a league standpoint, the promotion of sports betting can raise viewership for games and keep viewers engaged. Especially in sports that have long regular seasons like the MLB which has 162 games, or the NBA which has 82 games, leagues have promoted sports betting to try to keep viewers engaged all season long. With the extra incentive to win money, viewers may be lured to watch games that they wouldn’t normally watch if money was not involved.
Commercials and media portray sports betting as something that’s easy, and that anyone can win big. The reality is that it’s difficult to win money off sports betting and gambling in all forms is addictive.
“There’s a lot of unknowns, and although people have always been gambling on sports, never remotely was it happening at the scale that it is now,” said Danny Funt, a Charlotte-based reporter and editor who is currently writing a book about the rise of sports betting. “[Betting] is a really brutal addiction, because it’s invisible in a lot of ways, like, you know, you don’t have bloodshot eyes or other sort of physical giveaways that you have a gambling addiction, but it can be really ruinous for people.”
In a 2023 study by the NCAA, 3,527 18 to 22-year-olds were surveyed about sports wagering. The survey found that 58% of respondents engaged in at least one sports betting activity. Of that population, 16% engaged in at least one risky behavior and 6% previously reported that they had lost more than $500 on sports betting in a single day. Of these risky gamblers, 70% believed consistent sports gambling would increase their monetary earnings.
This type of engagement at a young age can have unhealthy long-term consequences on one’s behavior.
Sports betting in general can cause mental health issues such as anxiety and depression in bettors, but it can also lead to hostile behavior towards athletes if they are at fault for a bet loss.
Sports bettors have even gone to the extremes to go directly into a player’s direct message on social media to express their anger or even heckle them in public.
To some athletes, seeing this criticism can be quite discouraging. NBA All Star and Pacers Guard Tyrese Haliburton spoke on the effect sports betting could have on players. “Not everybody cares to hear how we feel. That’s just the point. To half the world, I’m just helping them make money on DraftKings or whatever. I’m the prop,” he said.
The constant promotion of sports betting has also built the portrayal of athletes as mere pawns and not human beings. Many bettors don’t care about the wellbeing of athletes and treat them as lesser than humans.
It has even gotten to the point where bettors have sent out death threats.
In one instance in 2021, sports bettor Benjamin Patz went to court because he was “accused of threatening professional and collegiate athletes on social media” according to an ESPN article by David Purdum. The U.S. Department of Justice said Patz targeted 307 collegiate and professional athletes and their families from teams such as the Patriots, Blue Jays, Athletics, Pepperdine University and others.
Patz admitted to sending death threats to four Rays players after a game on July 20, 2019 and was sentenced to 36 months of probation following his trial.
In regards to the Tyrese Haliburton quote, Robert ZeglinskiIn, a “USA Today” writer, expressed his concerns over bettors’ hostility towards athletes. In a For the Win article, he wrote, “Jumping into an athlete’s social media direct messages or heckling them in person? That’s crossing a line. It should never get to the point where they’re being demeaned for things almost entirely out of their control. Athletes deserve to be in public spaces like anyone else — be it on social media or while walking around without being harassed.”
Sports betting also creates a temptation for athletes themselves. One popular example includes Raptors’ forward Jontay Porter, who received a lifetime ban in 2024 from the NBA for “disclosing confidential information to sports bettors” and “limiting his own participation” in at least one game to influence the outcome of bets on his performance. One single instance included Porter calling out of a game after only playing three minutes claiming he was feeling ill.
On July 10, Porter admitted to purposely taking himself out of games for gambling purposes and pleaded guilty to a case that was tied to his NBA gambling scandal.
In 2023, the NCAA found 175 infractions of its sports betting policy since 2018, which included athletes, coaches, and administrators. Specific cases were not disclosed, but it shows the prevalence of sports betting violations in the college setting.
More people could be caught over time, which is a major problem towards the integrity of sports.
Sports betting is so deeply rooted in the economics, media and culture of American professional sports, that it is not realistic to remove it as a whole, but there are ways to reduce the harm of it. First, it is important that sports leagues and the media portray athletes as human beings and also be transparent with audiences that gambling is addictive and not easy to make a living off of. Second of all, there has to be stricter rules regarding the accessibility of online sports betting, as it is way too easy for anyone to engage in online sports betting, which has led to a lot of underage sports betting. Lastly, sports leagues must continue to hold athletes, coaches, and administrators accountable for betting violations, in order to maintain the integrity of sports.
The popularity of sports betting will only continue to increase from here, so it’s important that sports leagues and media begin to take precautions before the long term effects become permanent.
Editor-in-Chief: Jordan Premmer, Chief Copy Editor: Sophia McCrackin, Managing Editor: Jordan DelFiugo, Opinion Editor: Dakota Duran, Scene Editor: Elina Graham
