Ten years ago, placing a legal sports bet in the United States usually meant a trip to Nevada. Today, most Americans can place a bet from their couch in seconds. The speed of that change is hard to overstate, and so is the size of the money now moving through legal gambling.

How we got here

In May 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal law that had kept sports betting mostly confined to Nevada. That decision handed the question to the states, and they moved fast. As of 2026, sports betting is legal in 40 states plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, and 31 states allow betting on mobile apps.

Mobile access is the key difference. A casino has closing time, a drive and a cash limit in your pocket. A phone has none of those. Betting apps are open 24 hours a day, take deposits from a debit card or bank account in seconds, and offer a nonstop stream of in-game bets, parlays and promotions.

The numbers keep breaking records

According to the American Gaming Association, Americans wagered a record $166.9 billion with legal U.S. sportsbooks in 2025, up 11% from the year before. Sportsbook revenue rose almost 23% to $17 billion, and total commercial gaming revenue hit a record $78.7 billion.

Individual states tell the same story. Arizona, which launched legal sports betting in 2021, saw more than $9.1 billion wagered in 2025 alone, up nearly 15% from 2024, according to the Arizona Department of Gaming.

A new wave: prediction markets

Traditional sportsbooks are no longer the only option. Prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket let users buy and sell contracts on sports results, elections and other events. Because they operate under federal commodities rules rather than state gambling laws, they have been available in places where sports betting is still illegal. More than a dozen states have pushed back with lawsuits or enforcement actions, and federal appeals courts have split on whether states can stop them. We cover this in detail in our article on prediction markets.

The human cost

More betting means more people in trouble. The National Problem Gambling Helpline averaged more than 31,000 contacts a month in 2025. Nearly half of those contacts came from people ages 18 to 34, and more than 73% cited financial struggles, up from 66% the year before. Reports involving online and app-based gambling rose to 31% of contacts, up from 23%.

Researchers are also finding the damage in credit data. A study of millions of credit reports by researchers at UCLA and USC found that bankruptcies rose roughly 25% to 30% within a few years of online sports betting becoming legal in a state. Read more in what the research says about sports betting and debt.