Americans are on track to gamble away a record-high quarter-trillion dollars this year. Since the Supreme Court stripped away federal bans on sports gambling, regulators have behaved like negligent parents: good enough to keep their charges alive, but only just.
Total losses have grown 67% since COVID-19 started and are up another 8% over the last year alone, increasing faster than at any point from 2000 to 2020. That’s excluding gambling-adjacent activities that happen via crypto, prediction markets, stock options, or other avenues.
America’s modern gambling…