Latest news with #PASPA
Yahoo
a day ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Top 5 biggest winning bets in U.S. sports betting history: One bettor wagered $3.46 million against Patrick Mahomes
The U.S. now has legal sports betting in 40 states (with Missouri set to come online later this year) thanks to the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the Professional Sports and Amateur Protection Act (PASPA) in May 2018. The increase in available outlets for big bettors and the prevalence of social media has led to an increase in large wagers reported by different sportsbooks. Previously, those wagers could (legally) be made only in Nevada, and speaking with many veteran Vegas bookmakers for this story, there certainly were plenty of seven-figure wagers made before legalization. However, there's little doubt that we hear more about them in the present era of sports betting. And there have been plenty of seven-figure parlay wins off of smaller wagers, as well. For this article, though, we're focusing on the largest reported winning wagers in U.S. sports betting history — all of which have happened since 2018. And wouldn't you know it, the largest of all comes from just a few months ago from a BetMGM bettor in Ohio who wagered $8 million on the Oklahoma City Thunder to win the 2025 NBA Finals over the Indiana Pacers at -700 odds. Here are the five biggest reported bets that cashed in legal U.S. sports betting history: 1. $8 million on Oklahoma City Thunder (-700) to win 2024-25 NBA championship Date: June 5, 2025 Sportsbook: BetMGM State placed: Ohio Bet won: $1,142,857.15 How it happened: Placed a few hours before tipoff of Game 1 of the 2025 NBA Finals in June, a bettor in Ohio had serious conviction on the Thunder — and with good reason, as Oklahoma City opened at -800 odds to win the series and was one of the largest NBA Finals favorites since 1968, according to Sports Odds History. Oklahoma City was a massive 10-point home favorite in Game 1, but lost 111-110 on Tyrese Haliburton's buzzer-beater. This bettor had a much bigger sweat than anticipated, as Indiana pushed the series to the limit before losing Haliburton early in Game 7 to a torn Achilles and eventually falling 103-91 in the final game in Oklahoma City. 2. $3.46 million on Tampa Bay Buccaneers +3.5 (-127) in Super Bowl LV Date: Feb. 3, 2021 Sportsbook: DraftKings State placed: Colorado Bet won: $2.72 million How it happened: Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale — the Houston furniture salesman known for placing large sports bets as hedges for promotions — flew into Colorado Springs, logged onto the DraftKings mobile app and wagered a cool $3.46 million on Tom Brady's Buccaneers to beat Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl in early February of 2021. McIngvale paid a little extra juice to move the line from Bucs +3 to +3.5, which didn't end up mattering. Tampa Bay fell behind 3-0 before scoring 14 unanswered points en route to a 21-6 halftime lead and eventual 31-9 victory. Mahomes was sacked three times and under duress all game. Brady was named the MVP (for the fifth time in his Hall of Fame career) and won his seventh and final Super Bowl. 3. $3.1 million on Philadelphia Eagles ML (-700) to beat Carolina Panthers in Week 14 Date: Dec. 5, 2024 Sportsbook: Circa Sports State placed: Kentucky Bet won: $442,857 How it happened: One bettor at Circa Sports' Kentucky sportsbook plopped down $3.1 million on Jalen Hurts' Eagles (10-2 record at the time) on a Thursday this past December to simply defeat Bryce Young's Panthers (3-9 record at the time) on that Sunday. It's thought to be one of the biggest wagers ever on a regular-season NFL game. The Eagles closed as 13.5-point favorites, but were winning only 14-10 at halftime and actually were losing 16-14 heading into the fourth quarter. Grant Calcaterra's 4-yard touchdown catch from Jalen Hurts (and Saquon Barkley's subsequent successful 2-point conversion run) put the Eagles ahead 22-16 with 13:45 remaining. But this game is remembered for Panthers WR Xavier Leggette letting a would-be 32-yard TD pass in the end zone go through his hands with under a minute remaining. The Eagles eventually turned the Panthers over on downs and won 22-16, but this bettor probably sweated profusely through the game. T4. $3 million on Philadelphia Eagles ML (+160) to win Super Bowl LII Date: Jan. 24, 2018 Sportsbook: MGM State placed: Nevada Bet won: $4.8 million How it happened: A bettor known in the sports betting community only as "Bettor X" really liked Nick Foles and the Eagles to win outright against Brady's New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII. The bettor went around to several sportsbooks in Las Vegas — remember, this was several months before the Supreme Court repealed PASPA — and placed several large six- and seven-figure wagers on Philadelphia to win the game, including a $3 million money-line wager at +160 at MGM, confirmed to Yahoo Sports by Jay Rood, former MGM Resorts vice president of race and sports. The Patriots closed as 4.5-point favorites. Foles threw for 373 yards and three TDs and the Eagles upset New England 41-33 — a game that included the famous "Philly Special" play in which Foles caught a 1-yard TD pass from TE Trey Burton late in the first half on fourth-and-goal. T4. $3 million on Houston Astros to win 2022 World Series (10-1) Date: May 13, 2022 Sportsbook: Caesars State placed: Louisiana Bet won: $30 million How it happened: Mattress Mack was back again in 2022, placing a $3 million bet in May in a parking lot in Louisiana, per ESPN's David Purdum, on the Astros to win the World Series in 2022 at 10-1 odds. It was part of roughly $10 million worth of wagers the Houston furniture salesman put down on his hometown Astros to win it all. The Astros ended up defeating the Philadelphia Phillies in six games in the World Series, and Mattress Mack won roughly $75 million. Of course, he had to use the money to pay back his customers who bought mattresses over $3,000. "What can we say? We just wrote the biggest check in sports betting history to Mattress Mack for $30,000,000," Ken Fuchs, chief operating officer for Caesars Digital, said in a press release after the Astros won the World Series. "Would we do it all again? You bet."
Vox
2 days ago
- Sport
- Vox
Why sports gambling is more dangerous than ever before
What makes everything different from before 2018 is the seamlessness. Photo illustration byAlmost every tech platform is designed to grab your attention and never let it go. You give it clicks, and it gives you dopamine. Games, news updates, social media hits — they all run on the same logic. We can add a new activity to the list: gambling. In just a few years, sports betting has gone from a legal gray area to a mainstream multibillion-dollar industry. And this isn't just about sports. It's about how our economy increasingly exploits our cognitive biases and our irrationality, and how institutions — governments, media companies, even the sports leagues — have partnered in this system, because they all want a cut of the action. Jonathan Cohen is the author of Losing Big: America's Reckless Bet on Sports Gambling. It's a new book about the financial infrastructures that we've built on top of psychological vulnerabilities. I invited him onto The Gray Area to talk about how this happened so fast, what online gambling shares with social media and crypto, and how destructive — on a human level — all of this has been. As always, there's much more in the full podcast, so listen and follow The Gray Area on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever you find podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Tell me about the 2018 Supreme Court case that opened the floodgates for sports gambling seemingly overnight. In 1992, the sports leagues went to Congress because of a threat, that was real at the time, of states legalizing sports gambling. And Congress passed a law called The Professional Amateur Sports Protection Act that banned states from legalizing sports betting. And then, in 2018, the Supreme Court rendered PASPA, as it was called, unconstitutional on the grounds of basically states' rights. And so, starting in 2018 with the Supreme Court decision, states are allowed to legalize sports gambling if they so choose. How many states have chosen to do it? And how quickly? Delaware did within six weeks. Today, as we're talking in July of 2025, we have 38 states and Washington, DC, with legal sports gambling; 30 with online legal sports gambling; probably soon to be 39 and 31 later this year with Missouri. FanDuel and DraftKings are the names almost everyone knows. How much of the pie do they control? A lot. Those are the major players, almost to the point of a duopoly, defining the industry. And they have, I would say, around 80 percent, maybe 85 percent of market share. And of course it depends on some states. There are lots of other companies out there fighting for third, fourth, fifth place. What happened to online gambling during the COVID era? It takes off politically in places like New York because of the fiscal crunch faced by states. And this isn't a new thing. It goes back to the lottery, and even during the Great Depression, when slot machines were legalized in four states because they needed the revenue. Lawmakers have this belief that there's always more money in the gambling cookie jar. Oh, we need money. Let's just legalize more forms of gambling, and that will make up for our revenue shortfalls. Politically, that's exactly what happens during COVID in places like New York and in other states. But to your point about COVID, we have a lot of people sitting on their couches and a lot of professional sports are starting to come back. And lo and behold, there's a new app on their phone where they can legally, seamlessly, frictionlessly gamble. So you can imagine the way the industry grows its market share and grows its foothold in that time. The gambling companies promise the states all this easy revenue, and they go all in. How does that bet work out for them? This is what's tough about gambling in general and sports betting in particular. In most cases, it actually has met expectations if you were the fiscally responsible person who is reading the budget projections. But the question is at what cost? Let's talk about the cost, especially the human cost. You open the book with this story about a young guy named Kyle whose life was completely ripped apart. Why did you start there? What does his story capture about these gambling apps and how they're designed? I thought Kyle was emblematic of what's happened here. He's a 26-year-old white guy who ran into trouble gambling on sports, but then even more specifically because he was someone who had gambled before sports betting went live but had never run into trouble until it appeared on his phone. But he was just really excited for sports. He was a sports fan, and he started betting pretty quickly. At some point, I don't know when his personal tipping point came, but it came, and gambling went from being something he did as part of his life to being basically his entire life. He wasn't going out; he wasn't hanging out with friends. He was just gambling. It was so instantly accessible to him. That was all he was doing. And he was drinking, he was smoking more because he was so stressed out from his gambling. He falls behind on his rent. His dad has to bail him out. Things go very badly very quickly. To paint a picture: Kyle was making $65,000 a year, and at one point, he wagered close to $93,000 on bets in a single month. Eventually, he gets fired. He goes on unemployment, and then blows all the unemployment money on betting. And then he moves back in with his parents. Yeah. I picked him because he is a young man, and this is the demographic it's happening to. It completely interrupted his life. There's a black hole in his life for two or three years, where he was consumed by gambling and the stress from gambling and the financial and mental health deterioration wrought by gambling. Why are young men in particular so vulnerable to this? First of all, young men are not exactly known for being judicious and careful, especially when it comes to money. They don't have great impulse control. You could already imagine how that would set them up poorly for something like this. They're also — and I'll speak for myself as a formerly young male sports fan — overconfident about their knowledge of sports. Sports gambling companies absolutely take advantage of this. There's a FanDuel ad saying something like 'never waste a hunch,' challenging you to prove that you 'know ball' by betting on your hunches. Young men want to prove to their friends [and] to talk show radio hosts that they know ball, and gambling is presented as a way for them to do so. And then [there is] 'financial nihilism' among young people and young men in particular. Many young men have disposable income, [but it's] maybe not so much that they're ever going to realistically buy a house or pay off their student loan or start a business. So they might as well gamble. Whether it's on sports betting, whether it's on crypto, whether it's on stock markets, whether it's on video game skins — it's not worth having $10,000 in their pocket. It's worth having a chance at $100,000 or a million dollars. And they're willing, as a result, to gamble and gamble more and gamble in riskier ways than they otherwise would. What percentage of the industry's revenue comes from the Kyles of the world? Not the pros or high rollers — regular working people who are addicted to gambling? Sixty percent of betters account for 1 percent of revenue from NFL bets. If you do the flip side, 82 percent of the money is coming from 3 percent of betters. Some of those people I'll flag are going to be really rich VIP betters like Phil Mickelson, who gambles a ton. But you can imagine there's a lot of Kyles caught up in that group or in the interstitial group between them. What makes online sports betting fundamentally different — and more seductive — than traditional gambling? What makes it different from everything that we had before 2018 is the seamlessness. It's the app design that's just as good and just as seamless and just as frictionless as social media or a shopping app. And there's an endless, endless, endless menu of betting options. You can bet on, sure, the LSU Tigers to win the game. You can also bet on whether the first half kickoff is going to be a touchback. And then you can bet on whether the next pitch in a baseball game is going to be 88 miles an hour or faster. You can bet on a tennis serve. And then at 3:00 in the morning when you're on this bender, you're in this rabbit hole and you lost all [your] money all day, you can bet on Malaysian women's doubles badminton. It's not a brick-and-mortar casino. They can't pump oxygen into the room. They can't pull the clocks off the wall like they can at the casino. But they can, with little behavioral nudges, design into the app some of those tricks of the trade. When these platforms detect — and they have plenty of data to do it — that someone is trying to wean themselves off betting, or when they spot problematic play, what do they do? Do they leave that person alone and let them wean themselves off? Or do they slam them with promotional credits and deals trying to hook them back in? The anecdotal evidence suggests that they do the latter. I've seen reports suggesting that they even figure out when your payday is, and they'll send you more promotional credits and offers on those days. The data that they have on gamblers would make Las Vegas of the 1950s weep. It's incredible how much data they must have on every single one of us. They claim that this allows them to protect people and to flag users who are betting problematically, who are logging in too many times. But I have seen no indications that that's how they're using the data. It seems like they're instead using it to pair someone who's betting a lot with a VIP host and offer behavioral nudges and emails, auspiciously timed to re-engage them and to keep them in the cycle. Do they kick people off when they're consistently winning? They're clearly capable of identifying problems and responding to them. Yes, absolutely. And some professional gamblers I talked to, they make a habit of every once in a while placing a really, really vanilla ice cream–looking bet. They'll bet on Aaron Judge to hit a home run or the LA Lakers to win the championship, because they want to look as stupid as possible, so that the sportsbook thinks that they're a normie and not a professional gambler. Because the second [companies] realize that they're a professional gambler or that they can win money, they'll just kick them off the platform. But as long as [the professional gamblers] can make [the companies] think they're an idiot and that they're going to lose or that they're addicted, the platforms want to keep them playing. The industry loves to use phrases like 'responsible gambling.' What is your issue with people being personally responsible, Jonathan? I don't have an issue with personal responsibility, and I do think people have agency and should have agency over their own life. Fine. That being said, it's not simply that it's Kyle against the sportsbook. It's Kyle against a multibillion-dollar corporation that is doing everything in its power to hook him and extract every last dollar of his discretionary income. They say, Oh, if you want to set a deposit limit, if you want to set a time limit, you can do that. But [those tools] are rooted in a user opting in to decide to set a time limit, deciding to set a deposit limit. Fundamentally, what it's doing is putting the onus of responsibility of 'responsible play' onto the gambler, onto the individual, rather than onto the company to responsibly provision the gambler with a non-addictive product or a product that is not maliciously designed to extract every last dollar that they have in their bank account. Are there signs that the companies are getting better at this? That policymakers are taking this more seriously in terms of identifying problem gamblers and offering resources to help them get over that problem? Not on their own. If there's a reason for hope, I would say it's coming from outside. There are advocacy groups that are filing class action lawsuits over some of these companies' most insidious behaviors, these crazy promotions that offer $25,000 in bonus cash, but you actually need to bet $100,000 to get the $25,000 bonus or whatever it may be. There's also a lawsuit ongoing in New Jersey over VIP hosts, the company's employees whose job it is to find big bettors and keep them betting.
Miami Herald
24-06-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Where the world gambles: A deep dive into global gambling trends & online habits
Where the world gambles: A deep dive into global gambling trends & online habits Gambling has evolved from a clandestine pastime to a mainstream industry, generating over $500 billion globally each year. From the bustling casino floors of Macau to mobile sports betting apps in New Jersey, the landscape of gambling is rapidly changing. OLBG delved into the countries with the highest gambling engagement, the most popular games, and the cultural, legal, and technological factors influencing global gambling habits. Which countries bet the most? How does overall gambling participation look in each country? How do gambling behaviours vary across different countries? And more. Australia: The reigning champion of gambling engagement Australia leads the world in gambling participation, with 78% of adults engaging in gambling activities in 2022. The prevalence of electronic gaming machines (pokies) in pubs, clubs, and casinos contributes to this high engagement. Notably, Australians experience the highest per capita gambling losses globally, averaging $1,276 annually. Norway: online gambling's quiet powerhouse Norway boasts a significant online gambling presence, with projections indicating the online gambling market will reach $762.3 million by 2028. Despite strict regulations, the country's digital-first approach and widespread mobile access have made online gambling increasingly popular. South Africa: betting amid economic pressures South Africa's online gambling industry is experiencing rapid growth, with market revenues expected to reach $518.2 million by 2029. Factors such as high youth unemployment and limited recreational alternatives drive this trend, with sports betting dominating the market, particularly on football and horse racing. United Kingdom: mature, regulated, and widespread The U.K. maintains a well-regulated gambling environment, with 46% of adults participating in some form of gambling in the past four weeks. Online gambling participation stands at 17% when excluding lotteries. The U.K. Gambling Commission ensures that licensed operators adhere to stringent safety and transparency standards. United States: A sleeping giant awakens Since the 2018 repeal of PASPA, the U.S. has seen a surge in legalized sports betting. In 2023, 49% of American adults reported engaging in some form of gambling. The online gambling market is projected to reach nearly $40 billion by 2029, with gross gaming revenue surpassing $5.86 billion in February 2025. The Global Top 10: Who's Leading in Online Gambling? Based on the latest data, here are the countries where online gambling is most prevalent: What Google Searches Reveal About Gambling Habits Google Trends provides insights into public interest and curiosity about gambling, reflecting broader behavioral patterns. Mobile-First Gambling is Now the Norm. Searches for terms like "betting apps," "casino mobile," and "slots on phone" have seen consistent growth globally. As of 2025, 80% of online gambling users access platforms through smartphones. Across Europe, North America, and parts of Asia, top-searched phrases include "free spins today," "no deposit bonus," and "best casino bonus." These searches indicate a strategic approach to gambling, with players seeking value and promotions. Game Preferences: What the World Wants to Play "Online slots" trends are especially prominent in Europe and Oceania."Live blackjack" searches spike during sports or holiday seasons."Crash games" and other quick-fire betting formats have gained popularity, particularly among Gen Z Japan, searches for "pachinko" remain dominant, reflecting the game's cultural significance. Regional Differences: What Shapes How (and If) People Gamble? Several factors influence gambling behaviours across different regions: It's important to note that Google searches may not always translate to actual gambling activity. Factors like VPN usage, data anonymisation, and curiosity-driven searches can inflate interest metrics without corresponding betting behaviour. Final Thoughts: The Gambling Landscape is Changing - Fast From slot machines in Sydney to sportsbook apps in Michigan, gambling has become a global lifestyle activity. Digital innovation, mobile-first design, and evolving legislation have made gambling more accessible and personalised than ever before. However, it's not just about increased betting; it's about smarter, more strategic gambling habits. Search trends indicate that players prioritise value, legality, and convenience. As emerging markets like Brazil and India move toward regulation, participation numbers and related search trends are expected to rise significantly. Sources Statista: Provided global gambling revenue figures and market News: Offered insights into Australia's gambling participation South Africa: Supplied data on South Africa's online gambling market growth.U.K. Gambling Commission (UKGC): Shared statistics on U.K. gambling participation and regulatory Gaming Association (AGA): Presented data on U.S. gambling behaviours and Trends: Analysed global search trends related to gambling terms. This story was produced by OLBG and reviewed and distributed by Stacker. © Stacker Media, LLC.
Miami Herald
20-06-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Upstart prediction market leader has invaded sports betting. Here's why it matters to Nevada
Nevada's gaming companies have invested millions of dollars in their sportsbooks since casinos took their first sports wagers in 1949. Betting on sports and racing is widely viewed in the industry today as a means of getting customers through the doors to bet on other games of chance that are more profitable to casinos than sports bets or to spend on nongaming attractions within the casino. In May 2018, other states nationwide were enabled to offer legal sports betting, thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court's 7-2 vote to overturn the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992. The PASPA decision started a wave of sports-betting legalization that has resulted in 39 states and Washington D.C. allowing bets, producing $115 billion in gaming revenue, an economic impact of $328.6 billion and $52.7 billion in taxes and tribal revenue sharing in 2024. All are tightly regulated in their respective states and tribal jurisdictions. Kalshi invasion But suddenly, out of the blue, event-based trading invaded the space. Kalshi Inc., founded in 2018 in New York by CEO Tarek Mansour and Chief Operating Officer Luana Lopes Lara, became the first company to offer a financial exchange and prediction market. It sold its first contracts in July 2021. Other companies, and Robinhood, have since entered the market. Kalshi bills itself as the first regulated exchange in which people can buy and sell contracts on the outcome of events. Contract prices reflect the view of traders as to the chances of the event happening. What that means is that participants can attempt to predict the outcome of a current event and purchase a contract that will pay off if the event occurs. Kalshi event prediction topics have a wide range, from current events and politics to the weather and entertainment. All propositions are posed as a yes-or-no question. Recent contract offerings asked, "Will the National Guard leave Los Angeles before Aug. 1, 2025?" and "Will there be a new U.S.-Iran nuclear deal this year?" It's easy to start trading by signing up and funding an account through the Kalshi website. Most propositions are based on $1 values with totals reaching just over $1, with the more favored side having the high amount, the less favored side having the low amount and any amount over $1 considered a transaction fee collected by the company. Investors can place up to $25,000 on either side of a contract. Accurate predictions Kalshi boasts on its website that its market participants are remarkably accurate in their assessments. "Our inflation and federal rate forecasts have been more accurate than economists, pundits and traditional news outlets over the past year," the Kalshi website says. Kalshi got on Nevada's radar in late 2024 when the company won a lawsuit that permitted it to offer prediction contracts on elections. Betting on elections is forbidden by Nevada's Constitution. In late 2024 and early 2025, Kalshi stepped up its offers on sporting events and the yes-or-no propositions looked very similar to a typical sports bet. That's when the Nevada Gaming Control Board fired off a cease-and-desist letter to Kalshi warning it that it was in violation of Nevada gaming laws and that in order to offer prediction contracts on sports it would have to be vetted and licensed. Kalshi responded with a lawsuit that month, naming Control Board Chairman Kirk Hendrick and board members George Assad and Chandeni Sendall as defendants. Kalshi defended its belief that it is entitled to offer contracts on sports outcomes, saying that it's regulated federally by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and that federal regulation supersedes any state regulatory oversight. NRA intervenes The state girded to defend itself in the lawsuit to protect the regulatory side of sports gambling in the state. But the ones who stand to lose the most are the gaming companies that have invested millions in their sportsbooks. That's why the Nevada Resort Association filed a motion in U.S. District Court to intervene on the Kalshi case. District Judge Andrew Gordon ruled in June that the NRA could become part of the action, giving the state a new ally to fight the upstart Kalshi. Is Kalshi's prediction market presence a threat to sports betting in Nevada and other states that offer it? In its court documents seeking intervention, the NRA said Kalshi's unregulated presence in Nevada would be "seismic." Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nevada, also is among those hoping the company won't get a foothold in gaming. She's concerned that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission doesn't have the means to control underage gambling, or gambling by illegal players attempting to launder money. She also said unlike casino companies, Kalshi has no program addressing problem gambling. She also noted a political connection between Kalshi and sports betting. President Donald Trump nominated Brian Quintenz, a Kalshi board member, to become the next chairman of the federal agency that regulates futures markets. Last week, members of the Senate Agriculture committee - the Commodity Futures Trading Commission fundamentally reviews trading for agricultural products - grilled Quintenz in a hearing. It's unclear when a full Senate confirmation hearing for Quintenz will occur. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman is expected to schedule a meeting to vote on advancing Quintenz's nomination. If approved, the nomination would be placed on the Senate executive calendar for a full Senate vote. Then, a simple majority is required for confirmation. This entire process may take as little as a few weeks or as long as several months to complete. "The Senate must reject Brian Quintenz's nomination for chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission," Titus said in a statement. "His testimony illustrates how dangerous his appointment would be, including how he plans to transform this important agency into a rubber stamp for unregulated, illegal sports betting nationwide. Mr. Quintenz's conflict of interest as a board member of Kalshi and disregard for agency processes and procedure make it clear that he is the wrong person to lead the CFTC. The agency should be a strong, independent regulator, not a puppet for the president and his family. I thank my colleagues, including Sens. Adam Schiff and Cory Booker, who raised critical concerns during this hearing and urge the full Senate to reject his nomination." In January, Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., became an adviser to Kalshi. Rapid progression In an interview with the Review-Journal, Titus said she is amazed at how rapidly the issue of Kalshi as a sports-betting provider has progressed. "We first saw it when they were talking about betting on election outcomes. And we warned the AGA (American Gaming Association) and we talked to the NRA that this is coming fast. And nobody quite realized how fast it would move. And now, states are starting to get on board. The NRA is weighing in. This guy's (Quintenz) on the board of Kalshi, the biggest company that does this, and he doesn't seem to think there's anything wrong with it. But it's just a total way to get around any state laws concerning sports betting." Titus said she fully expects the matter would ultimately be decided by the courts. "More and more states are getting involved in it," she said. "It's not just Nevada. You've got Maryland, New Jersey and Nevada that have gotten lawsuits. And then you've got Montana, Ohio, Illinois and Arizona that have sent cease-and-desist letters. And then you've got Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Connecticut that have launched investigations. Now, they (Kalshi) won in the first round with Nevada and New Jersey, but now there'll be appeals for this, and now the Nevada Resorts Association is intervening. So I think this is going to play out in the courts and that may take a long time." She said legislative action is an option, but the challenge of that is educating lawmakers about the consequences to the casino industry if court decisions go Kalshi's way. Kalshi has not responded to requests for comment, but a gaming industry analyst said some good for the gaming industry may come out of the company's bold moves. "I'm excited to see what happens as a result of all of the conversations and all of the differing opinions on both sides of this argument," said industry analyst Josh Swissman, founding partner and managing director of Las Vegas-based GMA Consulting. "I will tell you that ultimately to have an environment where you have one set of operators that operate within one regulatory, operating and taxation framework and then you have a second set of operators that operate in a completely, very completely different set of regulatory, taxation and operating frameworks that that is not a long-term recipe for success. "I think what you will see is the coalescence of the two types of environments at some point in the future," he said. "I can't tell you what that looks like, but I can tell you that the gaming industry and sports wagering, particularly on these types of propositions, has been around a lot longer than these prediction markets have. And so there's a lot more in terms of protection mechanisms and infrastructure and everything else than there is in the other. Supreme Court bound Andrew Kim, a partner in the global Goodwin law group's appellate and Supreme Court litigation practice based in Washington D.C., has written extensively about Kalshi's gaming prediction market. He believes the lawsuit boils down to a federal vs. states' rights issue that ultimately will be heard by the Supreme Court. "It seems unavoidable that this will end up at the Supreme Court someday," Kim said in a Review-Journal interview. "I think a lot of that will depend on who wins and in what order. I think we're going to see battles across the country not just by the states but I expect that the tribes might get involved at some point. "It's a matter of whether the (Supreme) Court shows any interest in taking these issues up," he said. "Is it a state vs. federal argument? 100 percent. "The fights with Maryland, Nevada and New Jersey are all about federalism and did Congress intend to in allowing these contracts to exist and letting the CFTC regulate these gaming-related event contracts or did Congress intend to kick out state regulators and prevent them from regulating these contracts as gaming instruments as bets and wagers. That's the question." ___ Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Fox News
24-04-2025
- Sport
- Fox News
Oddsmakers don't miss business of booking NFL Draft: 'I'll sleep like a baby'
When the prehistoric Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) was finally struck down in May 2018, it paved the way for legalized sports betting across America as we know it today. Sure, you could bet on games and events like the NFL Draft in Nevada before the Supreme Court's ruling, but you couldn't log into your mobile betting app and wager from your couch in Illinois or New York or Pennsylvania. Sportsbooks started launching left and right and all those books fought for customers. Man, I miss the days when a sportsbook would offer you a $1,000 "risk-free" bet just for signing up. Some offers were bigger. Those were the days. Sportsbooks also found themselves competing in the realm of creativity. Shops like BetMGM, Caesars, DraftKings and FanDuel decided it was better to have more markets to entice customers to wet their beaks. The more options, the more action. This made the 2019 NFL Draft a damn free-for-all. It was the first time you could bet on the draft outside Nevada, and I vividly remember stories of bettors driving or flying to different states to whack mispriced markets. Draft position totals were posted in early March, some places posted head-to-head matchups, and long shots were plentiful along the way. Problem is, bettors were getting sound information before the sportsbooks and blasting sharp wagers at decent limits. In those days, you could see a player go from Under 13.5 -115 to Under 13.5 -600 on a random Tuesday. The books took a bath in 2019 on things like T.J. Hockenson going exactly eighth overall and Dexter Lawrence falling outside the top 10. You just knew it couldn't last forever. Longtime Las Vegas bookmaker Chris Andrews shut down NFL Draft betting a couple of years ago as head honcho at the South Point. He offered draft markets for years but got sick and tired of seeing red on the spreadsheet. I'm sure deep down he misses booking it. "Oh my God, no," Andrews told FOX Sports over the phone. "It was never what we should've been doing as bookmakers. There's always somebody that knows what a team is going to do in the draft. There's always a leak somewhere. And if the leak gets to the right wise guys, you're dead." Fascinating, isn't it? "It's also not a contest," Andrews continued. "It's not a game between the Phillies and the Mets, and you're handicapping which team you think is better that day. The draft has nothing to do with that. It's all about who gets the information first and people that got it before we did won every year. "There was nothing I could do about it." Draft markets are few and far between in Vegas. South Point and Golden Nugget didn't offer any menus, the Westgate offered one-day, $500 limits for six hours this past Tuesday and Circa booked $300 limits for a week. It's clear the headaches just weren't worth it. "Several years ago, we went up with a prop on how many linebackers would go in the first round," Andrews recalled. "We put up [O/U] 3.5. Three linebackers ended up going, but one of the big offshore outfits paid out four by mistake. "A couple guys came to me and said they had Over 3.5 and this book paid Over so we should do the right thing, too. We went off which said it was only three linebackers. It's not our job to pay a player out because somebody else made a mistake. That's not how this racket works. "We paid all the Under 3.5 winners and that was that." The old adage says all good things come to an end. That certainly feels accurate considering we can no longer pick apart draft markets for six to eight weeks and take money from bookmakers who have no means of defense. Draft betting as we once knew it is dead. "It wasn't worth the time and energy," Andrews said. "We're not gonna win, and I'm gonna wind up pissing off my players no matter what happens." "I'll watch the draft on TV, but I'll sleep like a baby." Sam Panayotovich is a sports betting analyst for FOX Sports and the BetMGM Network. He previously worked for WGN Radio, NBC Sports and VSiN. Follow him on Twitter @spshoot. Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, and follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily!
