Its 2018, the Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), a law that outlawed sports betting nationwide. Sports fans nationwide reacted with excitement and anticipation. PASPA was seen as an outdated prohibition on sports betting.
Fast-forward seven years, and the gambling landscape has drastically changed. Advertisements for sports betting apps have become inescapable, with figures like Kevin Hart and Drake bombarding viewers during sporting events. With the Super Bowl LVIII averaging 123.4 million viewers across all platforms in 2024 (NFL, 2024), leading up to Super Bowl LIX, the Super Bowl is no longer a celebration of American football but a stadium-sized advertisement for sports gambling apps.
Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association decision found the provisions of PASPA that prohibited state authorization of sports gambling as a violation of the anticommandeering (to protect the balance of power between the federal and state government) doctrine under the 10th Amendment. In delivering the Court’s opinion, Justice Samuel Alito emphasized, “the basic principle—that Congress cannot issue direct orders to state legislatures—applies in either event [whether commanding states to enact a law or prohibiting them from doing so].” In doing so, devolving the decision of legalizing sports to individual states rather than the federal government.
The harmful financial effects of legalizing sports gambling apps are staggering. In 2024 alone, preliminary reports estimated that the online gambling industry generated more than $14.2 billion in operator revenue, with FanDuel and DraftKings overwhelming the market’s output by over 65% (Ramsey, 2025). What does this mean for sports fans? Well, the success of sports gambling apps signifies the increase of multiple risks, some of which we are already seeing significant effects of: from increased risk of gambling addictions due to the constant availability of mobile apps, the significant increase in gambling-induced debts encouraged by deceptive marketing tactics, and increasing mental health issues- Sports gambling apps have created a perfect storm for the emerging gambling addiction crisis among young men. Americans have wagered almost $450 billion since 2018, with bankruptcy filings surging by 28% in the states that have legalized sports gambling (Hollenback, 2024). Overall, this paints a concerning picture of the detrimental financial effects of sports gambling on the consumer.
Many of the popular sports betting apps employ predatory tactics designed to maximize engagement and losses. The convenience of mobile gambling allows these apps to deploy strategies like push notifications, loss aversion, and gamification. FanDuel, for example, uses user data- “about 93 different data points they had on this individual… they knew the customer life stage it was at, so win back, they described it, so people that have given up gambling for a while and they are trying to get them to come back” (Cousin, 2024). In using push notifications to entice users who show signs of gambling addiction, apps like FanDuel interrupt daily routines, tempting users with popular bets, parlays, and micro-betting options to accumulate losses over time gradually. ‘Free bets,’ offered after losses, create a false sense of security, motivating the user to continue betting despite suffering significant losses. Additionally, elements like leaderboards and reward systems transform gambling from a destructive habit into a seemingly harmless form of entertainment.
Furthermore, sports betting apps tailor the user experience by utilizing data-driven algorithms (Meyersohn, 2023). By analyzing betting history, spending patterns, and browsing history on other third-party websites, they target the vulnerabilities of their user base while increasing engagement.
Celebrity endorsements are not a new phenomenon. However, their sponsorship in sports gambling further normalizes and glamorizes it as entertainment. High-profile athletes and entertainers like Floyd Mayweather, Jamie Foxx, and Cristiano Ronaldo lend credibility to Sports Apps, while advertisements like ‘Hard Rock Bet: For The Win Florida,’ featuring Post Malone, downplay the need for knowledge or strategy while placing bets, further encouraging players to make risky bets as sports betting apps have risen in popularity, leagues, who before detested sports gambling are now sponsored by them, integrating advertisements onto every inch of sports broadcasts. This widespread exposure to sports betting desensitizes sports fans, contributing to the growing gamification of gambling culture.
PHOTO BY RICH GRAESSLE/ICON SPORTS WIRE VIA GETTY IMAGES
Gambling addictions’, characterized by a pattern of persistent problematic betting despite cultivating a multitude of struggles for the individual, lead to a cascade of issues, including stress, anxiety, and depression- giving rise to financial deterioration, legal issues, and strained personal relationships (Gleeson, 2024) According to a Swedish population-wide study, “Suicidal attempts were twice as common among those who gamble problematically (6.6 percent) compared to controls (3.3 percent).” The consequences of compulsive gambling disorders are bewildering, and the increasing normalization of the additional time when mental health issues are already seeing a rise (Silwa, 2019) is detrimental to the emotional and financial states of the public.
Though sports betting every so often may not be inherently harmful, the exploitative advertisements and predatory practices of apps like DraftKings and FanDuel create a hazardous environment, especially for their young audiences. With the constant bombardment of tempting advertisements during every sports event, stricter regulations on the marketing of sports gambling apps are essential to stopping the growing gambling addiction crisis.
