Get rich or die trying: how sports betting is changing our love of the game

It's Been a Minute

NPR

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🗓️ 19 May 2025

⏱️ 20 minutes

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Summary

It's been seven years since the Supreme Court legalized sports betting outside of Nevada. For some, it's a hobby that spices up a game, but for others it's become a side hustle or investing strategy. And in a time where 60% of U.S. households don't earn enough to afford basic costs of living... that can be a problem.

This... is Money Troubles. And for the next few weeks, we're looking into the ways everyday people are trying to make ends meet... and what it says about how our culture views labor, basic needs, or even our favorite pastimes.

Today on the show, writer Manny Fidel and journalist Danny Funt join Brittany to get into how sports betting is changing the way we watch sports, and what that means for the love of the game.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This message comes from Scholastic with the new novel El Nino, an entrancing adventure from
0:05.8	beloved and award-winning author of Esperanza Rising, Pam Munoz Ryan. Jason Reynolds calls it
0:11.6	a brilliant amalgamation of myth, nature, sport, and loss. I've never read anything like it.
0:17.8	El Nino is available wherever books are sold.
0:23.8	Hello, hello. I'm Brittany Luce, and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR,
0:29.0	a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident. As you all know, I was obsessed with the 2025 papal conclave. There were TikTok edits about all
0:50.0	the potential candidates, a Twitter account called Club Conclave, dedicating to following the updates.
0:55.8	And before Pope Leo the 14th was chosen to lead the Catholic Church, the media was in a full
1:01.5	speculative frenzy. But there was just one aspect of the process that I did not expect.
1:08.6	People betting on the outcome of the conclave.
1:12.3	Similar to the 2024 presidential election, the conclave became a type of sport to follow.
1:18.2	And where there's sports, their sports betting.
1:20.9	It's only been seven years since the Supreme Court decision opened the floodgates for legal betting outside Nevada.
1:27.1	In that time, Americans have
1:29.1	wagered nearly half a trillion dollars. That is Danny Fund. He covers sports betting for the
1:35.0	Washington Post and is currently working on a book about the sports betting boom. He's been following
1:40.3	how sports betting is changing sports and attracting new groups to the possibility
1:45.4	of winning big. In other forms of gambling, like slots or playing the lottery, a lot of women
1:51.5	traditionally play that. The gender divide is so stark in sports betting, like perhaps 80, 20.
1:57.9	Men who like this sort of adrenaline rush of high-risk, high-reward games, sports betting is pretty appealing to them.
2:07.0	A whopping 48% of men, 18 to 49, have an account with at least one of the online sports books.
2:13.9	Now, if the term sports book sounds unfamiliar to you, don't worry.
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