The dam has opened on U.S. sports gambling and there's no turning back

This is in stark contrast to the UK and Ireland, which is trying to restrict the impact of sports betting.

U.S. sport is facing not its first, but certainly its biggest and most costly betting scandal since the 2018 easing of restrictions on gambling laws across the states which for the first time allowed open and widespread legal gambling on sports.

Shohei Ohtani, a top tier MLB player who recently signed an eye-watering 10-year, $700million contract to move cross-town from the Los Angeles Angels to the Dodgers, has been embroiled in a scandal which saw his interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, embezzle the guts of $16million from the player to place reportedly 19,000 bets with an illegal gambling network, losing a net amount of $40million.

Mizuhara was astoundingly poor at gambling, even joking with his bookmaker on his massive losses. Of course, none of this is funny to Ohtani, who appears to be innocent in the whole operation, nor Major League Baseball who are once again embroiled in an off-pitch scandal, taking away from it’s recent regular season throw-in.

The American gambling industry has grown exponentially thanks to a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Since then, 38 states and the District of Colombia have allowed some form of sports betting. Among those betting states, 29 permit wagering online. Unfortunately for Mizuhara, aside from thieving such monstrous funds from Ohtani, gambling is still illegal in the state of California.

Granted the Mizuhara case is more than your standard gambling controversy, the 2018 ruling was the dam busting open for the first time on a sports landscape that seemed tailor-made for gambling, including Ohtani’s own baseball. With plenty of breaks in play, a highly lucrative sponsoring and advertising world, some of the biggest sports names and organisations on the planet happy to endorse the products, and a bombastic media world which relies on content, loud noises and being as overtly controversial and opinionated as possible to draw views and clicks.

As such, the gambling boon in American sports begun, has quickly sky-rocketed, and is only getting started. There is absolutely no putting the toothpaste back in the tube, despite the ever-growing warnings of addiction and issues associated with problem gambling.

That is in stark contrast to the state of gambling in the UK and Ireland, which is trying to restrict the potency of betting advertising and sponsorship in sport. Although it is still very much prevalent, the US have taken it much farther with gambling fully integrated into television and online media coverage.

ESPN brought out ESPN Bets almost immediately after the easing of restrictions. DraftKings and FanDuel are behemoth advertisers, emblazoned across most sports television coverage and partnering with leagues, teams and individual players. Gambling odds and permutations are openly discussed on television. When picking the winner and loser was once a core part of weekend sports coverage, the betting odds are now embedded within it. If a pundit is bullish on a team, why not go and have a wager?

In Ireland, bans are beginning to be imposed on betting advertising. A bill approved by government in 2023 saw gambling advertising on social media banned, with a total ban on any advertising on TV or online between the hours of 5.30am and 9pm each day.

A 2023 study from the ESRI (Economic and Social Research Institute) reported one in ten adults are either problem gamblers or have reported gambling has caused issues in their lives. It suggests 3.3% people in Ireland meet the threshold for problem gambling - that’s over 130,000 people. High profile former and current players are the face of Gambling Awareness ads, opening up about their own gambling addictions.

UK shows similar stark numbers, yet gambling advertising is much more prevalent in sport there—particularly across the Premier League. Starting from the 2026/27 season, clubs will not be allowed to display gambling brands on the front of their shirts. However, a vast majority of clubs in the English pyramid continue to partner with gambling firms, whilst the entire Football League is partnered with SkyBet.

A number of players have been banned for gambling in football, most notably Ivan Toney, who sat out an eight-month ban before returning to parade in a shirt sponsored by Hollywood Bets, a South African gambling firm.

Granted active athletes are prohibited from endorsing gambling firms in the UK, that’s less restrictive in north America, where big name former athletes such as Tom Brady and Wayne Gretzky are prominent promoters of gambling firms. In Canada, where gambling advertising is extremely prevalent, laws are being issued to restrict athletes endorsing gambling.

Whilst the UK and Ireland continue to battle with problem gambling, rising addiction statistics and online gambling making it easier than ever before to participate, the U.S. are opening its doors to a multi-billion dollar industry who won’t be taking the foot off the pedal anytime soon. Ippei Mizuhara is clearly a problem gambler and will now face serious repercussions for his actions.

But this is just one high profile case in a growing trend in U.S. sport. It is just the beginning, and the regulations and authorities that will have to pick up the pieces of rising gambling addiction and its knock-on effects. More sports leagues and teams will have to deal with players that participate in gambling, like Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter, who faces a lifetime ban from the NBA. The NFL is cracking down on its players gambling, with strict suspensions for anyone caught, and they too have had to suspend players who dabble in gambling on the very league they contribute to.

Studies indicate gambling addiction is already at an all-time high in America. Whilst the full effects of the easing of restrictions in 2018 are yet to truly materialize as the marriage of legal gambling and US sports continues to bind, there’s absolutely no turning back now that the stranglehold of gambling has finally got it’s claws into the all-too-welcoming American sports landscape.