A record $3.1 billion in legal bets is expected to be wagered on March Madness and the NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments in 2025, according to the American Gaming Association.
In 2024, gamblers wagered $2.7 billion in legal bets, the organization said.
One big reason for the increase is that the number of states that permit legal sports betting has gone up in recent years. Legal sports betting is available in 38 U.S. states, and in 33 of those states, gamblers can make bets online.
“March Madness is one of the most exciting times in American sports, with fans fired up for both the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments,” said AGA senior vice president of strategic communications Joe Maloney. “As legal wagering expands across the U.S., more fans than ever have the opportunity to bet legally and responsibly.”
However, with millions of Americans able to easily bet online comes the risk of gambling addiction.
Dr. David Streem, an addiction psychiatrist with the Cleveland Clinic, said that gambling online may seem like harmless fun, but it can become quickly addicting.
"There are neurotransmitters, neurochemicals in the brain that we know, again, both from human studies and animal studies, that can be released in very influential amounts when certain conditions are met. Humans and other primates are wired to like chance and to be attracted by it," he said.
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On Tuesday, the NCAA announced the "Don't be a Loser" campaign, which intends to address harassment that student-athletes are facing from sports gamblers. The NCAA said that one in three student-athletes have faced harassment tied to sports betting.
"The horrific messages we are seeing across online platforms are absolutely unacceptable," NCAA President Charlie Baker said. "Angry fans are sending numerous abusive messages and threats to student-athletes, publicly and privately, because of lost bets placed on the athletes' performance in a game. These actions severely threaten student-athlete mental health and well-being, while harming the college athletics environment. We need fans to do better. We need states to do better and ban player props that target student-athletes and enable detrimental abuse."
One concern that Streem has for legal online sports betting is how vulnerable young adults have become to gambling.
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“I think exposure to kids when the brain is still developing, and remember the brain keeps developing through our teenage years all the way through until we're about 26 years old. So, as you're exposing kids to these sorts of conditioning signals at these ages of brain development, is that going to affect how their brains develop? Absolutely," he said.
