The NFL’s 59th season finale will be broadcast live from the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, this Sunday, February 9th. While the Lombardy Trophy has yet to be lifted, millions of fans will be monitoring the odds over the next few days to determine which team wins, and more importantly, if they win their bets.
Sports and gambling have gone hand in hand since the gladiators hurled their tridents in 264 BC. Competitions and gambling are in our DNA. It can be argued that today’s major sports leagues would cease to exist without gambling.
So why suddenly after decades of gambling being kept underground is it now front and center? Because people in this country need hope. People who feel hopeless might turn to gambling to escape their negative emotions, seeking a temporary sense of excitement or hope through the potential for a big win, even if it’s unlikely, essentially using gambling to alleviate feelings of depression or despair.
As the late, great, Norm Macdonald once said, “As long as the red dice are in the air, the gambler has hope. And hope is a wonderful thing to be addicted to.”
Interestingly, in the United States gambling has historically been done in the shadows: tucked away in the corners of dimly lit rooms, behind the backs of family and false walls at the mercy of bookmakers who would not shy away from breaking bones if lost wages were not paid.
After many years of underground gambling, sports gambling kicked off in earnest in 2018 when the US Supreme Court struck down a 1992 federal law, which had prohibited most states from allowing sports betting.
Fast forward to 2025, 38 states now have legalized sports gambling. You will be hard-pressed to watch 30 minutes of television without an advertisement for a gambling app or service. FanDuel, DraftKings, and BetMGM, to name a few, have exploded onto the scene and have contributed to a quarter of a trillion-dollar industry with no signs of slowing down. Gambling and sports have become synonymous, so much so that Super Bowl 59 will be played in the CAESAR’s Superdome. Yes, that Caesar’s Palace.
People of all ages have the right to feel somewhat hopeless about the future. Sadly, they’ve earned it. We have been failed by financial institutions, religious institutions, educational institutions, and government. Turn on the news, and in between gambling advertisements, you despair at war, famine, terrorist attacks, climate change, wildfires and political corruption. Solution? Bet on the coin toss.
As the biggest gambling day in the country nears, kickoff will be in a casino-sponsored dome in a city that will still be recovering from a domestic terrorist attack that left 15 people dead. As you place your wages I ask you to just pause for a moment.
I understand it is fun to place wages, participate with your friends and families on Superbowl squares and bet on what color Gatorade will be doused upon the winning coach. I will be eating wings, drinking beer and participating too.
But as you enter your hard-earned dollars into FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM etc., remember who wins in the long run. Ask why gambling is now the social norm? Why is it being forced to this degree? Why now? Yes, many people do it just for fun, but not the millions of people whose lives are destroyed.
The house always wins and for them to stay in business, in order for them to have built a metropolis in the desert, in order for them to own and host the most-watched sporting event in the United States they need you to have hope, but more importantly they need you to lose.
To quote Norm again, “Hope is a wonderful thing to be addicted to, but which hope are you betting on?”
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