In 2018 the Supreme Court struck down a law that prohibited most states from allowing sports betting. Gambling on sports is now legal in most states and has increased at an alarmingly fast pace. In 2019, the first full year after the Supreme Court paved the way for legalized sports gambling, bettors in the US wagered just over $13 billion on sports. Last year, they gambled $149 billion, and are on pace to shatter that number this year (almost $80 billion has been gambled through June, and most betting takes place during football season).
It’s impossible to watch any sports in the US without being inundated with gambling ads. The promises seem too good to be true: bet just $5 and get $300 in bonus bets, or get up to $1,500 in bonus bets if your first bet doesn’t win (both real offers currently available from major platforms). How can you go wrong gambling on sports with offers like that? Most platforms promise cheap entry and little risk, but the truth about betting on sports isn’t as it seems.
The house always wins
The amount of gross revenue sportsbooks make, as a percentage of wagers placed, has been increasing every single year since 2018, from 6.7% to 10% so far in 2025 (this percentage is called hold). They aren’t getting better at making odds, of course, but are getting better at steering users towards losing bets. For example, sportsbooks love parlays: hold is 18.2% on average for parlays, while they only make 4.9% on straight line bets. Data from New Jersey in September of last year showed that parlays accounted for nearly a third of total bets with a whopping hold of 24.2%.
Even if you avoid parlays entirely and stick to what you know, the odds are still stacked against you. A couple of the only ways to reliably make money on sports gambling are to take advantage of differences in odds across sportsbooks (known as arbitrage betting) or to bet on error lines. It is entirely legal for sportsbooks to limit your account for this behavior, which can effectively ban you from placing bets. It is very difficult to gain any sort of edge over the house, but if they discover you have, they can limit your ability to place bets or ban you entirely.
The stats on sports betting are grim and many bettors have a problem. A survey conducted earlier this year found that 50% of sports bettors have used a gambling addiction tool in a sportsbook app. That means half of all sports bettors surveyed either know they have a gambling problem or think they may have a problem. The same survey found that 37% have bet more money than they felt comfortable losing and nearly one-in-four, 23%, have had someone express concern about their gambling habit. It is worth emphasizing this wasn’t a survey of problem gamblers, but a survey of sports bettors in general.
Can you gamble responsibly?
I signed up for one of the major sportsbooks shortly after sports gambling was legalized in my state and placed a modest bet, I believe around $50, on UGA football to cover the spread in their bowl game (it was a New Year’s Day bowl game in 2021 against Cincinnati). I graduated from UGA and I am a fan of their football team, so it seemed like a natural bet to place. I placed the bet after the start of the game and my odds were UGA -2.5 points. That means if UGA won by 2 points or less, or if Cincinnati won, I would lose my bet. If UGA won the game by 3 points or more, I would win my bet.
The game was insane. UGA trailed Cincinnati by 2 points, 21-19, and kicked a field goal with just 0:03 seconds left in the game to go up by 1 point, 22-21. I was happy UGA took the lead, but disappointed I would lose my bet. Then on the final play of the game, the Cincinnati quarterback was sacked in the end zone for a safety, which is 2 points, so UGA won 24-21 and I won my bet.
That was the last time I ever bet on sports (or anything, for that matter). The game was exciting enough on its own, and I realized just how random gambling outcomes can be. I won my bet on a fluke safety on the last play of the game. I placed a bet on a team I had an emotional connection to, which is never a smart thing to do.
But the main reason why I decided to never gamble again after that win was because of the rush I got on that final play of the game. Not on the field goal for UGA to go up by 1 point, but on the meaningless safety to end the game. It was unlike anything I’ve experienced watching sports before and I realized just how addicting that feeling could be. I felt that if I continued to gamble on sports after that win, I would always be chasing the high from that day and would be at risk of becoming addicted.
The house always wins, and if you somehow gain a consistent edge over the house, well, they’ll kick you out. The share of Americans that see sports gambling as bad for society has been steadily increasing and is now at 43% (50% say it is neither good nor bad and only 7% say legalized sports betting is a good thing). Men under 30, the demographic group that places the most bets on sports, has seen attitudes shift even more dramatically. In 2022, just 22% of men under 30 said sports betting was bad for society. Now, 47% of young men agree that it is harmful.
I decided that sports betting wasn’t worth the risk for me and that casual gambling could potentially evolve into a more problematic habit. That may not be the case for you, but if you do bet on sports (or anything else), make sure you set rules for yourself. Never bet more than you can afford to lose. Don’t expect to make any money gambling and assume you will lose money over time. And make sure you are investing at least 25% for retirement before you consider spending any money gambling on sports.
