In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court found the federal law prohibiting states from authorizing sports betting to be unconstitutional. It is now up to individual states to decide if they want to authorize and regulate sports betting.
One time of the year when sports betting peaks is during the college "March Madness" men's basketball tournament.
Executive Director of the Wisconsin Council on Problem Gambling, Rose Blozinski says March has been designated as Problem Gambling Awareness Month...
"With all the basketball games and everything, it's all over. It encompasses the whole month. A lot of gambling going on, a lot of sports betting. It's a good month to let people know, 'hey, if you're having a problem there's help available. It also lets people know that if you're going to gamble, gamble responsibly, because you don't want to get to where you have a major issue with gambling..."
Blozinski says there's a couple of indicators that gambling has become a problem...
"If you're spending more money, if you're gambling more often, and if you're having financial issues that you've never had before. If you're having problems at work because you're whole focus, especially when you're talking about betting on the brackets, games and those kinds of things, your focus is getting away from work and you're having problems there. You're having relationship issues, those are a few of the things to pay attention to..."
According to the Economist magazine, U.S. gamblers lost $117 billion legally in 2016 and another $150 billion was wagered with bookies.
Wisconsin has a toll-free helpline open to anyone who may have a gambling problem: 1-800-GAMBLE-5 or 1-800-426-2535.
