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Will Sports Betting Continue to Boom in 2022?
Since sports betting became legalized in 2016, it's continued to rise significantly and many are wondering how the future market will look
Money
For a long time, betting on sports in the US was pretty much illegal, with wagers of this kind banned at the federal level. It was frustrating for fans of sports and gambling, but the situation changed four years ago when the Supreme Court passed a new ruling that overturned this federal ban.
From that point on, the decision about whether betting on sports should be legalized or not was down to the individual states. Since then, many of them have moved towards legalization, which is not surprising because there is a real desire among many people across the US to be able to wager money on their favorite sports as well as watching them.
Once the Supreme Court had announced its ruling, the process of making it legal to gamble on sports here in the US got underway pretty quickly across several states. At the current rate of progress, it does not seem like it will be very long before it is fully legal and an accepted part of life in most areas of the country.
Current data from the American Gaming Association (AGA) indicates that 30 different US states, plus the District of Columbia, have since passed laws making it legal to bet on sports, with 18 including online betting in that. This means that people within the boundaries of those states can bet on single sports matches using either real-world or online sportsbooks.
Among the states that have already legalized it are Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, New Jersey, New York, Mississippi, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington DC. Of course, that still leaves several where it remains illegal to bet on sports, but the direction of travel since 2018 is very clearly towards removing the restrictions.
The reason why so many states have quickly moved to legalize betting on sports is that the demand is there. Sports fans want to be able to enjoy a bet on matches and have wanted to for a long time. There is nothing unusual in that, as gambling on sports is very popular and normalized in much of the rest of the world.
If you were to visit the UK, you would find sports betting outlets in most high streets, many of which are also available online. This is true of other countries too, such as New Zealand for one example. Putting a bet on sports there is a completely legal and common activity – both at brick and mortar outlets and with various sports betting operators online.
In reality, the US had been lagging behind other parts of the world in refusing to embrace the rise of this activity. It is hard to see why, with so many states now enthusiastically adopting it, but possibly it is down to the slightly puritan streak that still runs through the country and can be traced back to its founding.
The 30 states that have already passed legislation making it possible for residents to bet on sports will definitely not be the last ones to do so. Several other states have set this same process in motion. There are three states where the necessary laws have already been passed, but sports betting facilities have not yet launched – namely Ohio, Nebraska, and Florida.
Now that some form of sports betting is permissible there, it is only a matter of time before the actual facilities become available too. A further seven are at the stage where legislation to legalize betting on sports is at the pre-filing stage or has already gone before the state legislature. These are Oklahoma, Missouri, Massachusetts, Kansas, Georgia, California, and Alaska.
We can surely expect betting on sports in those seven states to become legal in the very near future. Of course, that will still leave a number of US states where it is not possible to put a bet on a sports match without breaking the law, but it is pretty obvious what the direction of travel is on this issue and there will be no going back to the way things were before.
The removal of the federal prohibition on sports betting indicated an acceptance that this was something that people want to be able to do and that there is no good reason why adults should not be allowed to. How rapidly legalization has moved since then is a testament to the high levels of demand within the various states.
With more states set to make it lawful to bet on sports this year, the chances of the boom in US sports betting continuing are extremely high. It is also difficult to see how those states that have not yet moved to pass legislation legalizing the activity can fail to do so for much longer. The USA is a country built on the love of freedom as well as of its sports such as football, baseball, and basketball.
That means the freedom to wager on these sports as well as to watch them, and that is finally being realized. What we are currently witnessing is a sea change in attitudes to sports betting in the US. The dramatic shift towards legalization has shown that only the federal ban was standing in the way of its rise and with the restrictions lifted, the increase in sports betting revenues and activity are sure to continue surging as well.
