The dirty secret behind the hobby costing young men thousands of dollars

单集文稿 ...

• 00:03

  This is In Conversation from Apple News.

• 00:07

  I'm Shamita Vasu.

• 00:08

  Today, why sports betting is bigger than ever.

• 00:21

  October is one of the peak sports seasons in the U.S.

• 00:25

  The NFL is in full swing, the NBA and NHL are just getting started, MLB playoffs are underway,

• 00:31

  the WNBA finals just wrapped up, and men's and women's soccer are moving into their final stretches.

• 00:37

  And along with all of that action,

• 00:39

  there's something else happening among the fans, tons and tons of sports betting.

• 00:44

  I think really even putting a small, small,

• 00:46

  small amount of money on a game just gives you a stake in this thing that you can't control just makes it that much more exciting.

• 00:52

  That's Jonathan D. Cohen, he's the author of Losing Big America's Reckless Bet on Sports Scambling.

• 00:58

  It really is like alcohol in a lot of ways where you can sort of really casually,

• 01:02

  really occasionally,

• 01:03

  really carefully imbibe or participate without sort of running into any trouble.

• 01:07

  But there of course are other people who can't say the same thing.

• 01:10

  It wasn't long ago that sports betting was illegal almost everywhere in the U.S.

• 01:15

  That changed in 2018 when the Supreme Court struck down the federal ban and gave states the power to legalize it.

• 01:22

  By the end of this year, it'll be legal in 39 states plus Washington, D.C.

• 01:26

  And, this part is important, accessible on smartphones in most of those states,

• 01:31

  which has helped it explode in popularity.

• 全部文稿