THE CASINO IN YOUR POCKET: INDIANA’S $5.5 BILLION SPORTS-BETTING EXPERIMENT

Game Props Anyone?

Hoosiers are betting billions, young men are leading the charge, and the state makes money on every losing streak. At what point does entertainment become a public-health problem?

INDIANAPOLIS — There was a time when gambling in Indiana required some effort.

You drove to a casino. You went to the track. You bought a scratch off or lottery ticket at the gas station. There was a physical transaction, a trip and, perhaps most importantly, a natural stopping point. Recently, DraftKings advertised it is taking bets online and cellphones in all 50 states.

Indiana has now effectively put the sportsbook in your pocket. You can block these apps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W5jgcl4vTg

Football Sunday? Bet from the couch. Pacers game? Bet from your seat. College basketball? Bet before tipoff and potentially keep betting while the game is being played.

The transformation has been astonishingly fast — and the numbers deserve considerably more attention than they receive.

According to the Indiana Gaming Commission, bettors wagered approximately $5.52 billion on sports during fiscal year 2025. Only about $136 million of that was wagered at physical sportsbooks. An astounding $5.38 billion — roughly 98% — was wagered online.

Read that again.

Five-point-three-eight billion dollars wagered through the Internet in one fiscal year in Indiana.

This isn't primarily casino gambling anymore. It is phone gambling.

And Indiana may want to start asking whether the device that allows you to order dinner, text your wife and check tomorrow's weather should also function as a casino open virtually everywhere you go.

YOUNG HOOSIERS HAVE DISCOVERED THE SPORTSBOOK

The most troubling numbers aren't necessarily measured in dollars.

They're measured in age.

Indiana University's Prevention Insights conducted a statewide gambling survey in late 2024. Researchers found that 88% of Indiana adults reported participating in some form of gambling during the previous year.

Sports betting showed an enormous generational divide.

Among Hoosiers ages 18 to 34, 34.7% reported sports gambling. Among those 55 and older, the number was only 7.8%.

Men were also far more likely to bet on sports: 33.7% of Indiana men compared with 13% of women.

But perhaps the most important number in the entire study involved online sports betting.

In 2022, about 12% of Indiana adults ages 18 to 34 reported betting on sports online.

By 2024?

Nearly 30%.

In two years, the proportion had more than doubled. That isn't a gradual cultural change. That's an explosion.

WE DIDN'T JUST LEGALIZE BETTING. WE MADE IT EFFORTLESS.

Indiana legalized sports wagering in 2019. Mobile sportsbooks followed almost immediately. Indiana Gaming Commission records show DraftKings and BetRivers received mobile launch authorization on October 3, 2019, with FanDuel following that month. Today multiple operators compete for Hoosiers' wagers.

The significance of mobile gambling cannot be overstated.

The old casino had friction built into it. You needed transportation. You had to enter the building. You saw money or chips leave your hands. Eventually, you had to go home.

The modern sportsbook eliminated much of that friction.

The casino comes home with you.

Indiana's own 2026 gambling focus-group research found participants describing online gambling as easier, more immediate and more disconnected from the sensation of spending actual money than gambling in person.

Participants also repeatedly mentioned gambling advertisements, celebrity endorsements, mobile applications and the increasing integration of betting into sports culture.

That last point matters.

Watch sports today and gambling is no longer merely adjacent to the game. Odds, spreads, parlays and betting discussions have become part of the language surrounding sports.

The fan is no longer simply being asked: Who do you think will win?

He's being asked: Who wins? By how much? Who scores first? How many yards? How many three-pointers? And would you like to combine several of those predictions into one wager promising a much larger payoff?

Welcome to the parlay.

THE PARLAY MACHINE

Indiana's own numbers demonstrate just how important parlays have become.

In January 2026 alone, the state's reported wagering by sport included approximately $176 million in parlays.

Football accounted for about $94 million.

Basketball accounted for about $161 million.

Parlays beat them both.

That should get everyone's attention.

A parlay combines multiple bets. Every leg generally must win for the ticket to pay. The potential payout becomes more exciting as additional selections are added — but so does the difficulty of winning.

The marketing attraction isn't difficult to understand.

A $10 wager can suddenly display a possible return that looks much more exciting than winning another $9.

Just one problem.

You have to be right again.

And again.

And again.

THE STATE WINS, TOO

Indiana isn't merely regulating this industry. Indiana taxes it. No conflict there.

Sports-wagering adjusted gross receipts are subject to a 9.5% state tax.

In January 2026 alone, sportsbooks reported approximately $49.3 million in taxable adjusted gross revenue, producing about $4.68 million in sports-wagering taxes.

That creates an uncomfortable policy question.

Can government become financially dependent on an activity while simultaneously being responsible for protecting citizens harmed by that activity?

Indiana lawmakers did provide money for addiction services when sports betting was legalized.

But look closely at the formula.

Indiana law directs 3.33% of sports-wagering tax revenue into the Addiction Services Fund. Of that transferred amount, 25% must be allocated to compulsive-gambling prevention, education, provider credentialing and treatment.

Do the math.

Twenty-five percent of 3.33% equals approximately 0.83% of sports-wagering tax collections specifically required by that provision to go toward compulsive gambling.

Not 25% of sports-betting taxes. Not 3.33%. About eight-tenths of one percent.

Indiana can certainly fund gambling services through other sources, and it does. But that statutory sports-betting formula deserves public scrutiny as wagering grows into a multibillion-dollar business.

A 2023 Indiana Council on Problem Gambling presentation noted that from the beginning of sports betting through June 2023, sports wagering had generated more than $100 million in taxes. A little over $3 million went into the broader Addiction Fund and only about $800,000 was allocated for problem gambling under that funding mechanism.

Maybe Hoosiers think that's enough. Maybe they don't. But HE thinks they ought to know.

WHO REALLY PAYS WHEN THE BETTING GETS OUT OF CONTROL?

Most people who place a bet aren't gambling addicts. That distinction matters. It is fun.

There is nothing inherently catastrophic about putting $20 on the Colts, filling out a March Madness bracket or betting on the Indy 500 with money someone can comfortably afford to lose.

The issue is what happens to the minority who cannot stop.

Indiana's 2024 survey found 2.6% of adults reported considering whether they had a gambling problem, dependency or addiction. Yet just 0.4% reported seeking treatment.

Those percentages look small until you remember Indiana has millions of adults.

And gambling addiction can hide remarkably well. There may be no smell of alcohol. No needle. No slurred speech. No obvious physical evidence.

A person can sit beside his wife watching television while losing hundreds or thousands of dollars on the phone in his hand.

Indiana defines warning signs as gambling that disrupts psychological, physical, social or vocational life. They include increasing the amount wagered, becoming restless when trying to stop, chasing losses, hiding gambling from family members and continuing despite serious negative consequences.

By the time everyone else realizes something is wrong, the bank account may already know.

AND NOW THE FINANCIAL RESEARCH IS ARRIVING

This is where the sports-betting debate becomes much more serious.

A major recent study examining transaction data from 183,821 households and more than four million household-quarters studied what happened after states legalized online sports betting.

Researchers found that sports betting didn't simply replace other entertainment spending.

Among frequent bettors, investment deposits fell dramatically. The researchers estimated that each dollar deposited into online sports-betting accounts was associated with roughly 20 cents less deposited into investments.

Frequent bettors were also more likely to increase consumer debt, with the effects particularly pronounced among households that already had low savings.

Think about what that means in ordinary Indiana terms.

The money isn't necessarily coming out of some imaginary "entertainment account."

It can be money that otherwise might have become an IRA contribution. A car payment. Emergency savings. A credit-card payment. A child's college fund. Or simply money still sitting in the checking account Monday morning.

The sportsbook isn't competing only with another sportsbook (now called trading apps, or using Sidney Sweeney to lure more customers). For some customers, it may be competing with their financial future. And this hurting the state and people who need help in a generation that is self-harming itself and in denial.

Watch the games on Sunday after going to church but don't bet on 18 leg parley! Or the Barstool Sports hot pick.

COLLEGE CAMPUSES SHOULD BE PAYING ATTENTION

Indiana's colleges have another reason to watch this carefully.

The 2025 Indiana College Substance Use Survey included responses from 5,402 students ages 18 to 25 at 26 Indiana colleges. More than 42% reported some form of gambling during the previous year.

Among students who gambled, 7.5% reported feeling guilty or bad about gambling and 4.4% reported money problems associated with it.

This is a generation carrying a casino into class. And unlike the casino floor, the phone doesn't have closing hours.

THE ADS MATTER

The gambling industry will correctly point out that millions of customers gamble responsibly.

But advertising is another legitimate part of this debate.

A systematic review of 22 studies found sports-related gambling advertising was associated with increased gambling frequency, spending, likelihood of gambling and, in some studies, riskier or more complex wagers. The effects appeared particularly significant among people already at greater risk of gambling harm.

That's worth remembering the next time an advertisement makes gambling look less like gambling and more like another ingredient required to enjoy a football game.

Bet $5. Get a bonus. Build a parlay. Live bet now. Boost your odds.

The industry's product isn't predicting football games. The product is the wager.

WE HAVE NORMALIZED SOMETHING REMARKABLY FAST

Indiana's 2026 focus-group study may have identified the cultural change better than any revenue spreadsheet could.

Hoosiers told researchers gambling had become increasingly normalized and socially accepted, particularly sports betting.

That's exactly what has happened.

A generation ago, your neighborhood bookmaker was operating illegally.

Today the sportsbook advertises during the game.

Yesterday, someone who wanted to bet repeatedly had to find a bookie or drive to a gambling establishment.

Today he unlocks his iPhone. The technology is brilliant. The convenience is extraordinary.

The tax revenue is real.

And for the overwhelming majority who gamble within their means, sports betting may remain nothing more than entertainment.

But government has an obligation to look beyond the happy customer.

Indiana should be asking harder questions about gambling advertising, college-age bettors, treatment funding, financial education, self-exclusion programs and whether current protections were designed for an era when 98% of the state's sports wagering is happening online.

Because $5.5 billion isn't a hobby-sized number. It is an industry. And when almost 30% of young Indiana adults report betting on sports online, this isn't some fringe activity anymore.

Indiana made a calculated bet in 2019: legalize sports wagering, regulate it, tax it and let adults make their own decisions.

Six years later, there is nothing wrong with checking the ticket. Did Indiana win?

The sportsbooks certainly did. The state treasury got its share.

The harder question is whether every Hoosier family did — and how many quietly lost far more than a football bet along the way.

IF GAMBLING ISN'T FUN ANYMORE

Indiana offers confidential help for people concerned about their gambling or the gambling of someone they know. The Indiana Problem Gambling Referral Line can be reached at 800-994-8448. Indiana also provides treatment-provider referrals and online assistance.

A bad bet doesn't mean someone has a gambling disorder.

But borrowing money to gamble, hiding bets, chasing losses, repeatedly trying and failing to stop, or gambling despite serious financial or relationship consequences are warning signs worth taking seriously.

Sources: Indiana Gaming Commission; Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, Division of Mental Health and Addiction; Indiana University Prevention Insights and Indiana Problem Gambling Awareness Program; Indiana Department of Revenue; Indiana Code §4-38-10-3; Indiana College Substance Use Survey; peer-reviewed research on household finances and sports-gambling advertising.