If you’ve watched a sporting event lately — and especially if you’ve ever bet on one — odds are you already know how radically sports gambling has changed in recent years.
“It’s not even the same world,” said Dr. Timothy Fong, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Twenty years ago, if you wanted to legally bet on sports, you’d have to go to a casino in Las Vegas or Atlantic City, “and that’s about it,” said Fong, co-director of the UCLA Gambling Studies program. Today, thanks to legal changes and mobile tech, “you never have to leave your couch.”
Thanks to the hundreds of millions of dollars the gambling industry has spent on advertising, even casual sports fans know where to place a bet. But few are probably aware of the ways gambling could be connected to their health.
