Sports betting is legal in 39 states and Washington, D.C. Explore the staggering rise of sports betting wagers, revenue, and state tax dollars in this interactive chart and explainer.

Interactive chart: the rise of legalized sports betting

Data Source: GamingToday.com

Chart animation and interactivity edited in Claude

The sports betting landscape

The 2018 Murphy v. NCAA Supreme Court decision opened the floodgates of states legalizing sports betting. Since then, sports betting legalization has outpaced personal finance graduation requirements. Betting on sports is now legal in 39 states and Washington, D.C. (32 & D.C. online), while Personal Finance is required as a standalone course in only 30 states.

Huge ad dollars, hands-off regulation

The largest online sportsbooks in the U.S. spend anywhere from $300 million to $1 billion per year on:

• new market promos, "profit boosts", and "bonus bets";
• marketing research;
• advertising (digital, TV, programmatic, and physical media);
• celebrity endorsements

The result is an onslaught of ads and first bet promos in every new state that legalizes sports betting.

In states where sports betting has been legal for years, sportsbooks' marketing dollars are pivoting to customer retention via escalating promos and daily activity boosts.

Meanwhile, federal regulation of gambling advertising is minimal, so most oversight falls to the states. Crucially, state governments have little incentive to crack down on deceptive or predatory advertising practices by the industry because it represents new state tax revenue.

Why policymakers should care: rampant sports betting hurts vulnerable households first

When sports betting is legalized in a given state, research shows that the most financially constrained households gamble the largest share of their income and displace long-term investing with more spending on sports betting.

1. For financially constrained households*, every $1 wagered on sports corresponds with -$3.07 deposits in retirement accounts
2. Below-median-savings households increase credit card debt by $368 more than above-median-savings households and reduce quarterly credit card payments by $550 post-legalization
3. Credit delinquency increases by 26% for under-40 bettors
4. More frequent overdrafts for financially constrained households*
5. Escalating signs of gambling addiction: 3 years after legalization, the average bettor's quarterly deposits to sports betting apps are 8x their first quarter's deposits.

*households with below-median quarterly savings deposits and one or more bank account overdrafts in the previous 4 quarters

Sources:

1. Scott R. Baker, Justin Balthrop, Mark J. Johnson, Jason D. Kotter, and Kevin Pisciotta (2024). Gambling Away Stability: Sports Betting’s Impact on Vulnerable Households. National Bureau of Economic Research. Available at nber.org
2. Jacob Goss & Daniel Mangrum (2026). Sports Betting Across Borders: Spatial Spillovers, Credit Distress, and Fiscal Externalities. Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Available at newyorkfed.org

Minors are getting caught up in sports betting and other online gambling, but the share is largely unknown

Despite being under the age limits for legal use, some minors are actively participating in sports betting. The share of underage bettors ranges from 10% to 60% depending on the survey and demographic segment, but it's self-reported.

In NGPF's 2025 Flash Survey of over 1,000 educators, 83% of teachers said they had witnessed or heard of their students participating in online gambling in the past month.

Students are finding ways to participate in:

• Sports betting apps where they wager on game outcomes, player stats, season outcomes and Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) apps where they "pick" player lineups to win cash prizes based on lineup stats
• Prediction Markets (Kalshi, Polymarket, Robinhood, etc.) where they trade "event contracts" (wagers) on sports, weather, elections, and more
• Skins gambling and loot boxes in online video game spaces and gaming streams

What can teachers do about the rise of sports betting?

1. Meet students where they are: learn the language of gambling (it is everywhere!) and know the apps your students are likely to encounter.
2. Have the conversation: use NGPF's free Gambling and Sports Betting Mini Unit to facilitate meaningful discussions with your students on the topic of sports betting
3. Show, don't tell: help students analyze the cognitive tricks sports betting marketers use to hook new users, and simulate long-term wealth building with

About the Author

Christian Sherrill

Former teacher, forever financial education nerd. As NGPF's Director of Teacher Success, Christian is laser-focused on helping the heroic teachers who fuel NGPF's mission to guarantee all students a life-changing personal finance course. Having paid down over $40k in student loans in the span of 3 years - while living in the Bay Area on an entry level teacher's salary - he's eager to help the next generation avoid financial pitfalls one semester at a time.