In 2014, when sports betting was still banned in 49 states, National Basketball Association commissioner Adam Silver wrote that “sports betting should be brought out of the underground and into the sunlight where it can be appropriately monitored and regulated.” Four years later, the Supreme Court struck down the federal law keeping sports betting illegal. Since then, 39 states have legalized.
Last week, the NBA effectively conceded that Silver was wrong. The league issued memos to its sportsbooks partners and all 30 teams restricting bets that are easy for an individual player to manipulate. While users will still be able to bet on the outcome of games, they will no longer be able to wager on small, difficult-to-monitor plays such as opening tip-off winners, specific missed shots, or under bets on players with low total time played—bet types that proliferated since legalization. The new ban comes after multiple NBA players were targeted in federal investigations involving bets on their individual performances.
Finally, a reason to check your email.
Sign up for our free newsletter today.
The NBA’s shift is part of a broader recognition of the calamitous effects of sports betting’s legalization. Rather than merely offering a regulated path for seasoned bettors, as many predicted, legalization has put millions of Americans at increased risk of compulsive gambling and damaged the integrity of sports. Belatedly, professional leagues and states are trying to reverse some of these effects.
The National Football League, for example, recently urged the Supreme Court to intervene in the legal battles over Kalshi, a popular prediction market whose business is mostly “event contracts” that function much like traditional online sports betting. (Kalshi claims exemption from state sports gambling bans because it operates as a derivatives exchange under federal law.) Attorneys general from 39 states and the District of Columbia have filed an amicus brief supporting New Jersey’s case against Kalshi.
New York is also attempting to regulate online sports betting. In September, Attorney General Letitia James and Governor Kathy Hochul announced a lawsuit against Polymarket, claiming that the prediction market site’s event contracts constitute an “illegal, unlicensed gambling operation that exposes New Yorkers—including those under the legal gambling age of 21—to serious personal and financial risk.” Hochul announced earlier this year that she was directing state authorities to explore using biometric verification and geolocation to tamp down underage online gambling.
These stark reversals on sports betting reflect a broader shift in public opinion. According to Ipsos, 56 percent of Americans believe sports betting undermines the integrity of the games—up 19 percentage points since 2023. More Americans now oppose online or app-based sports betting in their state than support it. According to Reuters, only 29 percent of Americans support online gambling.
The popular backlash shouldn’t surprise us. As with drugs, legalization didn’t just transfer the existing population of gamblers from black markets to regulated ones. It also opened up a path for new gamblers who might never have placed a bet without the existence of Draft Kings, FanDuel, Kalshi, or Polymarket. Putting betting apps on millions of phones, offering promotional credits, and integrating odds into sports broadcasts recruited customers who would never have dreamed of approaching an illegal bookie.
That, in turn, seems to have led to more addiction. According to a 2026 Epic Research study, the rate of diagnosed gambling disorders in states that have legalized sports betting has risen by 61 percent since 2018. In states that did not legalize, the rate fell by 29 percent over the same period. In legalized states, the greatest increase in diagnoses was among males aged 18 to 29.
That addiction leads to other harms. A recent study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found legalization caused a rise in anxiety and depression diagnoses and treatment. The Journal of Gambling Studies found that legalized online gambling increased household credit card debt by about 12 percent. Under legalization, frequent bettors also reduce investments by over 50 percent, while bankruptcies jump by 10 percent.
That professional leagues, states, and public opinion are increasingly turning sour on sports betting proves what many argued long ago: legalization leads to an increase in use, addiction, and cheating. States should continue pursuing means to mitigate the effects of legalization and, where possible, reverse it.