You know who will rank among the biggest winners of the Super Bowl on Feb. 8? Politicians and bureaucrats in the nearly 40 states that have legalized sports betting. 

Americans legally wager almost $150 billion a year on sports, including the NFL’s biggest game. Before and even during the game between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks, NFL fans are expected to bet $1.7 billion on everything from who will win the opening coin flip to how many passes quarterbacks Sam Darnold, of the Seahawks, and Drake Maye, from the Patriots, will complete.

Taxes on those bets – New York assesses a 51% levy on sports gaming revenue – add billions to state budgets. But it comes at a high cost to the public. 

In 2025, researchers from UCLA found a “substantial increase” in bankruptcies, loan delinquencies and debt sent to collection agencies in states that have legalized sports betting. 

The researchers used data from the University of California Consumer Credit Panel, which collects credit scores, credit card balances, loan delinquency information and other measures of the financial health of millions of Americans. 

Their conclusion? “Overall, we find that the legalization of sports gambling decreased consumer financial health,” the researchers wrote. “These results seem to be particularly pronounced when states legalize online betting, suggesting that the ease of access to gambling increases the problems associated with it.”

Call me old-fashioned – I am – but it’s not right that bureaucracies grow fat off Americans going broke on bad bets.

In fairness to state lawmakers, it was the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 that ruled the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act was unconstitutional because it impeded states’ rights. A majority of states soon passed legislation to legalize, regulate and tax gambling on games. 

And the ease of placing bets online quickly brought a little viva Las Vegas into family rooms and sports bars across America.

On the DraftKings app – FanDuel is the other major online sports gambling platform – wagers could be placed this week on everything from NBA games and English Premier League matches to mixed doubles curling in the Winter Olympics.

It’s not just about winners and losers and old-school point spreads. So-called prop bets enable gamblers to put money on the jersey number of the first player to score a touchdown in the Super Bowl and even the color of Gatorade dumped on the head of the winning coach (orange and blue have the best odds).

But all of this temptation to lay your money down has come at a price. A U.S. News survey published in July found that a quarter of Americans who bet on sports say they have been unable to pay a bill because of gambling on games, and 30% say they are carrying debt linked to their bets.

The integrity of the games themselves has also come into question after recent gambling scandals in the NBA and college basketball. In December, an NBC News poll found that 63% of Americans say they are “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned” that sports betting will “lead to games being fixed or rigged.”

Given the stakes, it’s fair to ask what Congress is doing about sports fans losing their rent money while major corporations like FanDuel and DraftKings clean up. The answer is not much, at least so far.

The SAFE Bet Act, first introduced in 2024 and again last year, would regulate advertising for sports betting and the use of artificial intelligence in online gambling. But it has yet to pass. 

And the online gaming companies are betting they can keep it that way. Both DraftKings and FanDuel have stepped up their campaign donations, mainly for Republican candidates, in the 2026 election cycle. In December, for example, DraftKings donated $500,000 to the Senate Leadership Fund, a Republican political action committee.

So who do you have in the big game? Will the Seahawks soar to victory? Or will the Patriots ride to glory?

My bet is on government bureaucracies and the sports books that increasingly fund them.

Tim Swarens is a former deputy opinion editor of USA TODAY and former opinion editor of The Indianapolis Star.

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