Sports Betting Booms After Supreme Court Ruling

The sports betting landscape has been completely transformed since 2018, when the Supreme Court’s decision in Murphy v. NCAA struck down a 1992 federal law that had largely prohibited the practice. The ruling “effectively allowed states, any state, to legalize sports betting,” said Andrew Lautz, tax policy director of the Bipartisan Policy Center, leading to what he described to Checkpoint as “absolutely bonkers growth.”

Since that decision, Americans’ sports wagers have skyrocketed from $7 billion in 2018 to $167 billion in 2025, a nearly 24-fold increase, according to Lautz. This explosion has been fueled by technology, with user-friendly apps making it easier than ever to place a bet; of every 20 bets placed in 2024, 19 were online, he said. As of the end of 2024, 38 states and Washington, D.C., had legalized sports betting, with 32 of them taxing the activity, he added.

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