The book “Business of Sports Betting” by Becky Harris, John T. Holden, and Gil Fried traces the centuries-long connection between sport and gambling. The material shows how the state’s attitude toward sports betting and gambling in general has changed, and outlines the three waves of legalization the United States has gone through.
The ancient world: gambling alongside spectacles
Bets emerged alongside organized competitions and immediately became their inseparable companion. Three examples from the depths of history confirm this:
- Between the fourth and third millennia BCE, in Ancient Egypt people placed bets on dice, board games, and skill-based contests such as chariot racing and fencing.
- Around the eighth–seventh centuries BCE, people placed bets during the ancient Olympic Games.
- In Ancient Rome, betting on games and races was a fact of everyday life; the authorities periodically imposed bans, but made exceptions for festivals, when gambling was not only tolerated but actively encouraged. Chariot racing was especially popular.
The 1612 lottery and the colonization of the New World
In 1612, King James announced the first British lottery. The mechanism was simple: townspeople bought tickets, they were placed into a barrel or rotating drum, and then a winner’s name was drawn at random. This lottery played a notable role in financing the Jamestown colony and, in effect, turned gambling into a tool of state-led expansion.
Lotteries build America
Lotteries became something like the mortar holding the young country together. The proceeds were used to build the first public buildings, colleges, roads, canals, and religious structures.
In 1776, the First Continental Congress launched a lottery in the thirteen colonies to raise money for the War of Independence. In this way, gambling became woven into the very history of American statehood.
The Long Island racetrack and the format’s staying power
British settlers brought with them not only lotteries, but also a passion for horse racing. In 1665, the first racetrack opened on Long Island in New York. Despite periods of waning interest, horse racing has existed continuously in America for more than three and a half centuries, making it a rare exception among regulated forms of gambling.
Cards, saloons, and the authorities’ leniency on the frontier
As the United States pushed westward, gambling shifted from “official” mechanisms like lotteries to everyday games and illegal establishments. Poker and other card games flourished in saloons, and the authorities often turned a blind eye to illegal gambling houses, considering them the “lesser evil” compared with street fights and violence. San Francisco went a step further and licensed limited forms of gambling to boost public revenues.
Three waves of legalization according to the classification of I. Nelson Rose
Professor I. Nelson Rose identified three waves of gambling legalization in American history. Each began with hopes for revenue and ended in scandals or tighter regulation.
From 1787 to the mid-1830s gambling was generally prohibited, but lotteries and raffles were allowed to fill the budget. In parallel, steamboats and “river” gamblers emerged, associated with crooked card games. By the end of the period, numerous scandals had erupted: in some cases, drawings simply never took place. The constitutions of Nevada, California, and Texas enshrined an explicit ban on lotteries. In Nevada, it remains in force to this day.
From the 1840s to the 1890s after the Civil War, lotteries were revived to finance the Reconstruction of the South. Some states rewrote their constitutions, while others simply ignored earlier bans. In the West, casinos flourished, although many games were blatantly tilted in the operators’ favor. Poker remained an exception, where players’ odds were, at least in theory, equal. As city administrations took shape, laws against casinos were adopted, and the wave faded after the scandal surrounding the Louisiana Lottery, whose operators were accused of trying to bribe lawmakers.
From the beginning of the 20th century a sustained shift toward expanding the legal market took shape. A pivotal moment was the return of the state lottery in 1964. Nevada became the capital of gambling, followed by Atlantic City in New Jersey, and then casinos appeared in many other states. For the authorities, financial gain increasingly outweighed acknowledged social risks.
Legal gambling was nearly universal by 2022
By 2022, only two states, Utah and Hawaii, had no legal forms of gambling whatsoever. The other 48, aware of gambling-related harm, continue to rely on regulated-market revenues as a significant source of budget receipts.
The internet and a new geography of betting
Today, bets are increasingly placed online, and this has radically changed the scale of the industry. Where wagers used to be limited to racetracks, saloons, and licensed casinos, online sportsbooks are now accessible from anywhere in the world. Companies like Mostbet, Parimatch, and 1xBet have become widely known even among fans of niche sports that previously remained outside the Western audience’s attention. Chess, table tennis, and cricket—all of it has become part of betting lines. Data from several specialist sites support this trend. For example, the authors at 1xbet cricket betting describe in detail how a mobile app and broad tournament coverage make this sport available for betting in virtually any region.
The accessibility of such platforms turns disciplines that were previously little-known in the West into full-fledged markets with their own audiences and competitive odds. In effect, the digital era has set in motion what looks like a continuation of the legalization waves Rose described—except now the boundaries are expanding not between states, but between continents.