For every buzzer-beater and upset at this year’s NCAA Basketball Tournaments, there will be legions of bettors praising and cursing the heroes of March Madness in almost equal measure.
Gamblers in the U.S. will wager more than $3 billion on this year’s NCAA Tournaments, according to the American Gaming Association.
The real madness, it turns out, isn’t just on the court. Sportsbooks and betting apps have grown at a frenzied pace in recent years as fans — the shortened version of the word “fanatics,” remember — flock to the second-largest sports gambling event of the year.
March is, coincidentally, Problem Gambling Awareness Month.
And activists and researchers are raising alarm bells about the proliferation of sports betting and its impacts on Americans, especially young men.
