American sports are in the spotlight once again, but not for the reasons fans might hope. In a week punctuated by both high-stakes games and high-profile arrests, the uneasy marriage between sports and gambling has been laid bare. The recent detainment of Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier on allegations of illegal sports betting and rigged poker games has reignited concerns over the integrity of American sports. This isn’t just an isolated incident; it’s the latest in a string of scandals that have shadowed the rapid expansion of legal sports betting across the United States since the landmark 2018 Supreme Court decision.
That ruling, which allowed states to legalize sports gambling, has fundamentally transformed the landscape of American athletics. Legal wagers on sports soared to a staggering $160 billion in 2024, easily outpacing the $100 billion spent on lottery tickets. Gross gambling revenue also hit new heights, reaching $13.7 billion—a 23% jump from the previous year, according to the American Gaming Association. And it’s not just the casinos cashing in. Major sports leagues and teams are raking in billions through direct sponsorship deals with legal sportsbooks, with annual values likely topping $1 billion.
"Clearly very important," is how Victor Matheson, an economics professor at the College of the Holy Cross and expert on sports business and gambling, described these sponsorships. “No matter how rich leagues are, the gambling sponsorships are not something that anyone wants to turn down.”
Consider the visible reminders inside stadiums: The NFL’s Arizona Cardinals, MLB’s Arizona Diamondbacks, and the NBA’s Washington Wizards are just a few of the franchises that have installed physical betting shops at their venues. The money doesn’t stop at sponsorships. Sportsbooks pour hundreds of millions into advertising, especially during games, boosting the revenue of networks and streaming services. This, in turn, drives up the price of broadcast and streaming rights—now a multi-billion-dollar business on its own.
Michael Lewis, author of "Moneyball" and the podcast "Against the Rules," noted, “It’s a way to keep fans engaged in meaningless games. In an era when people’s attention spans seem to shrink by the moment … this is like the future of the way that a fan engages with the sport.”
Yet, as the money flows in, so do the scandals. The recent arrests of Billups and Rozier—who were among more than 30 individuals indicted in a federal investigation—underscore the risks. According to authorities, the cases involved elaborate schemes to manipulate sports bets and poker games, allegedly with links to Mafia families. Rozier’s lawyer, Jim Trusty, pushed back, telling ESPN that Rozier had previously met with NBA and FBI officials in 2023 and was told he did nothing wrong at that time. Still, the optics of these arrests have fueled fresh skepticism.
Polling data suggests that the American public is increasingly wary of the impact of legalized sports betting. A Pew Research Center poll from the summer of 2025 found that about 40% of U.S. adults now believe legal sports betting is a bad thing for society and sports, up from 33% just three years ago. The most dramatic shift? Young men under 30: about half now think sports betting’s impact is negative, a sharp rise from 22% in 2022. Even among those who have placed a bet in the past year, 34% say legal sports betting is bad for society, up from 23% in 2022.
Despite these concerns, the appetite for betting remains strong, especially among younger adults and communities of color. About 30% of adults under 30 reported betting on sports in the past year, and Black and Hispanic adults are more likely than white or Asian adults to have done so. Online betting is popular, with 14% of adults saying they’ve bet on sports online at least occasionally, but in-person casino betting remains even more common.
Americans do draw a line, though, when it comes to college sports. While 60% support legal betting on professional sports, only about 40% back the same for college athletics, and more than half outright oppose it. This distinction is especially relevant as the NCAA, which has long kept its distance from sports gambling, announced that it would allow college athletes and staff to bet on professional sports starting November 1, 2025. The NCAA still prohibits betting on college games, but it’s impossible to ignore the indirect benefits: an estimated $3.1 billion was wagered on “March Madness” in 2024 alone, helping drive up TV ratings and network rights fees. “How do you convince networks to pay a billion dollars a year for college basketball? It’s because a ton of people tune in,” Matheson said. “And why do so many people tune in to college basketball during March Madness? It’s because obviously everyone builds out a bracket, right?”
The debate over sports betting is now intertwined with broader questions about the future of college sports and athlete compensation. The introduction of the SCORE Act (House Resolution 4312) in July 2025, following a $2.8 billion antitrust settlement, has sparked intense debate. The legislation aims to provide clarity and stability for student-athlete compensation through name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights, affecting around 200,000 Division I athletes and half a million NCAA athletes overall. The act explicitly states that athletes are not employees of their institutions—a point of contention among critics who argue that schools and conferences benefit at the expense of the athletes themselves.
Texas Tech regents chairman Cody Campbell has been especially vocal, criticizing commercials supporting the SCORE Act and arguing that the legislation “needs more work.” Meanwhile, a July 2025 survey by Elon University and the Knight Commission found that opinions on NIL payments remain divided: 31% view them positively, 21% negatively, and nearly half are unsure. The shifting landscape has also led to frequent conference realignments, with the once-mighty Pac-12 now a shadow of its former self.
For every league or team benefiting from the gambling boom, there’s a growing chorus of experts warning of the risks. Jonathan D. Cohen, author of “Losing Big: America’s Reckless Bet on Sports Gambling,” cautioned, “Leagues sort of wandered into this sort of not really knowing what they’re getting into, just knowing that they could make a lot of money off of it. It just speaks to this sort of recklessness with which we dove in.” Lewis echoed those concerns: “I think that (leagues) are going to poison their sports if they don’t watch out. We’re not at the place where people are genuinely questioning the integrity of the sport. But we’re not that far away.”
As scandals mount and public skepticism grows, the sports world faces a pivotal moment. Will the lure of gambling money ultimately undermine the games themselves, or can leagues, colleges, and lawmakers find a way to strike a balance? For now, the action—on the field and off—shows no signs of slowing down.
