This is in conversation from Apple News. I'm Shemitabasu. Today, why sports betting is bigger than ever.

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

The NFL is in full swing.

The NBA and NHL are just getting started.

MLB playoffs are underway.

The WNBA finals just wrapped up.

And men's and women's soccer are moving into their final stretches.

And along with all of that action, there's something else happening among the fans,

tons and tons of sports betting.

I think really even putting a small, small amount of money on a game just gives you a stake in this thing that you can't control.

It just makes us that much more exciting.

That's Jonathan D. Cohen.

He's the author of Losing Big America's reckless bet on sports gambling.

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

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

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

It wasn't long ago that sports betting was illegal almost everywhere in the U.S. That changed in 2018 when the Supreme Court struck down the federal ban and gave states

the power to legalize it. By the end of this year, it'll be legal in 39 states plus Washington,

D.C. And this part is important, accessible on smartphones

in most of those states, which has helped it explode in popularity. In 2018, Americans placed

legal sports bets totaling more than $4 billion nationwide. In 2024, they bet nearly $150 billion.

49% of American men between the ages of 18 through 49 have a sports betting account.

...