Just last month, the city of New Orleans had the honor of hosting Super Bowl LIX. The Jalen Hurts-led Philadelphia Eagles secured a dominating victory over Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, who had aspirations of etching the franchise’s name into the history books with three consecutive Super Bowl wins.
However, when looking at the amount of money legally wagered on one of the most popular sporting events, a historical record of roughly $1.5 billion was wagered by sports bettors—up from $1.25 billion during last year’s Super Bowl.
The controversy surrounding sports gambling across the United States has impressive foundations and continues to become more prominent as the years progress.
From a historical standpoint, the 1919 Black Sox scandal is the earliest example of how sports gambling challenges the integrity of the game that fans truly cherish. This infamous scandal focused primarily on how eight members of the Chicago White Sox were bribed to lose to the Cincinnati Reds in the 1919 World Series — with payments ranging from $70,000 to $100,000.
Additionally, other prominent athletes have been found guilty of being involved with instances of illegal sports betting. Ranging from Pete Rose, the all-time hits leader in MLB history, being banned for life for betting on baseball games to former LSU standout wide receiver Kayshon Boutte being accused of placing more than 8,900 illegal sports bets and making six wagers on games involving LSU football, this addictive practice has claimed the likes of various athletes across nearly every professional sports league.
In response to the sports gambling market being projected to reach an estimated $78 billion in revenue by the conclusion of this year, LSU Kinesiology PhD student King Saah, whose research primarily revolves around individual sports development, firmly believes that sports gambling companies are taking advantage of new and oblivious sports bettors.
“We have a lot of young people, [who] are really engeded with gambling… and it create[s] the situation where it becomes a dependable sort of thing and don’t enjoy the sport for what it is,” Saah said. “I know people… who are not excited anymore to watch sports if they aren’t betting.”
Through the seismic shift to online sportsbooks, such as Draftkings and Fanduel, the evolution of sports gambling sportsbooks applications continues to offer a plethora of ways for individuals to wager money on sporting events in just a matter of seconds.
“If you look at back in the day, you had to go to casinos inside Las Vegas to be able to gamble on sports legally,” Saah said. “With the advent of the internet… streaming services… social media… these gambling companies have new ways to reach you now, and they take advantage of these opportunities.”
After Congress passed the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA), this legislation essentially banned sports gambling nationwide outside of the state of Nevada.
Through events such as the state of New Jersey approving a state-wide referendum to legalize sports betting in 2011 to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver voicing his support of the legalization and regulation of sports betting in 2014, this shift to mainstream acceptance was only a matter of time.
In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned PASPA and decided that states should determine for themselves what level of sports gambling should be present. Following this legislative breakthrough, 40 jurisdictions in the United States now allow some form of sports gambling.
Louisiana was one of the first southern states to adopt these newly established sports gambling principles and has since become one of the powerhouses in this unique industry in the Southern U.S. (ranking within the top 10 for states in the amount of money wagered on sports).
With this background information in mind, taking a closer look into the emotional and psychological influence of sports gambling brings to light the harsh realities of this addictive practice.
In direct correlation to the national expansion of sports gambling, 31% of people with sports gambling disorders have contemplated suicide and battled severe cases of depression, as reported in a 2024 study conducted by the organization Science Direct.
“I’ve seen guys who’ve lost a lot of money go into depression,” Saah said. “People have mental health issues because they lost their savings… and people have committed suicide due to losing everything from sports gambling.”
When attempting to find potential solutions to minimize the lasting implications of the sports gambling industry, ideas such as implementing regulations and placing more attention toward limiting the amount of commercials/promotion on digital sports books have been discussed.
However, MLB Network and NBA TV sports betting analyst Ariel Epstein proposes a unique proposition that individuals battling with sports gambling addiction can effectively utilize.
“I have a friend [and] he wasn’t good at betting… he put a ban on himself,” Epstein said. “He called the sportsbook, and he was like,’ I want to place a one-year ban on myself.’ And once you place that ban, you can’t do anything to overturn it.”
Since the introduction of self-exclusion programs, individuals have the opportunity to take personal initiative and gravitate away from the consequences of excessive sports betting.
Residents of Louisiana must either enroll in person at a casino or call the necessary sportsbook(s) to undergo the self-exclusion process for sports gambling.
Upon the program’s competition, a minimum of a five-year ban will be administered.
