Ben Wolf, 45, of Los Angeles, spends his nights shuttling USC college students round campus in the free Lyft zone.
At every crimson mild, he opens the PrizePicks app on his cellphone to trace the progress of his newest multi-leg NBA participant prop parlay. That’s betting discuss.
“Goddamn it,” he mentioned, observing a 5-leg parlay that had simply fallen aside.
Since a landmark 2018 Supreme Court choice, the sports playing trade has exploded throughout the United States.
The Court’s ruling in Murphy v. NCAA gave states the energy to legalize sports betting. At least 40 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, now permit some kind of business sports betting. California and Texas nonetheless don’t.
But the legalization of sports betting in sure states additionally opened the door for on-line platforms like DraftKings and FanDuel.
In October 2025, the Pew Research Center reported that 1 in 10 U.S. adults has positioned an internet sports wager in the previous 12 months – a 6% enhance since 2022.
“The friction has been reduced,” mentioned Wayne Taylor, a professor of advertising at Southern Methodist University. “You can just pull out your phone and start betting, whereas in the past you had to drive to a casino or a sports book.”
Taylor, together with Daniel McCarthy of the University of Maryland and Kenneth C. Wilbur of UC San Diego, discovered that common on-line playing spending has risen 369% since legalization.
Taylor mentioned one purpose for the surge is fixed promoting by main sportsbooks.
Another driver is the rise of micro-bets, notably participant prop bets.
Player props are sometimes wagers on a person athlete’s efficiency, similar to what number of factors, yards or hits they are going to have in a recreation. A prop wager, nevertheless, could be on something: for example, whether or not the second half kickoff goes into the finish zone.
A parlay combines two or extra bets – known as ‘legs’ – into one. Each leg should hit for the wager to
win. Under a parlay, a small stake might pay out huge.
“It’s a way for people to stay entertained,” Taylor mentioned. “Rather than one big dopamine hit at the end of the game, you’re getting these hits throughout the whole game. That’s a recipe for addictive behavior.”
While authorized sports betting continues to develop, public concern is rising. According to the similar Pew examine, 43% of U.S. adults say authorized sports betting is unhealthy for society, up 34% from 2022.
Asked whether it is unhealthy for sports, 40% of adults say sure, up from 33%.
Mark Nichols, a professor of economics at the University of Nevada, Reno, known as the present state of U.S. sports betting “rushed.” In the similar vein, McCarthy known as it the “wild, wild West.”
The key issues surrounding on-line sports playing embody behavioral and monetary penalties for bettors and the rising risk to the integrity of the recreation amid current scandals.
“Online sports betting is resulting in people decreasing their savings and investment opportunities and also increasing their credit card debt,” Nichols mentioned.
In October, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and former NBA participant Damon Jones had been indicted in a federal playing case. Prosecutors allege a bunch of insiders, bookies and mafia associates used non-public participant knowledge to wager on prop bets.
In November, Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz had been indicted on fees of taking bribes to rig particular pitches to take advantage of prop bets. Following the scandal, MLB and main sportsbooks introduced a $200 cap on pitch-level micro-bets and banned them from parlays.
Although sports betting just isn’t authorized in California, many residents nonetheless place bets by means of rebranded each day fantasy sports (DFS) apps like PrizePicks or Underdog, or make the most of offshore betting websites.
Paul Choi, 57, of Santa Clara, California, mentioned his associates launched him to BetAnything, an offshore sportsbook in the United Kingdom. Since opening an account a number of years in the past, Choi mentioned he has wager nearly each week, totally on NFL video games.
“It makes the games more exciting when you’ve got money on the line,” Choi mentioned.
Jason Yang, 43, of close by San Jose, California, positioned his first sports wager on a visit to Las Vegas after turning 21.
“It’s exciting,” he mentioned. “It makes watching the games more exciting, and you get an adrenaline rush.”
After Vegas, Yang continued betting by means of a good friend who ran an unlawful bookmaking operation.
“One of the best feelings was elation, like when you win on a slot machine,” he mentioned. “The tough beats were gut-wrenching, frustrating, depressing, all those things.”
Hughie Choe, 45, of Mountain View, California, commonly locations bets starting from $100 to $1000. He believes California ought to legalize sports betting.
“I don’t think it’s fair for certain states to have it and other states not to,” he mentioned. “It’s clearly more political than anything else, which is really not fair.”
Zackary Homrich, 20, of San Jose, California, a sophomore laptop engineering pupil at Purdue University, made his first bets in highschool on an app known as Fliff that provides free each day credit so customers can play with out placing ‘skin in the game.’
“I could spend 20 bucks to go bowling with my buddies on a Friday night, or I could put 10 bucks on the game and make it interesting,” he mentioned. “It makes it more fun when you have something specific to root for.”
As for Wolf, the 45-year-old Lyft driver, he is aware of he’s unlikely to “hit it big,” however nonetheless locations a couple of parlays every day. Even throughout his present dropping streak, he fires off betting slips hoping the subsequent one pays off.
“I know I’m donating at this point,” he mentioned. “One day it will hit.”