From Plato to Charles Barkley, great minds have warned about the destructive power of gambling. The way societies have usually managed the vice is to cordon it off. It's legal, but contained to disreputable places, such as red-light districts, riverboats, and Nevada. This was true in much of the United States until 2018, when a Supreme Court ruling opened the door to legalized sports betting nationwide. If you've watched a game on TV in the past few years, or listened to a sports podcast, or checked a score on your phone, you have no doubt absorbed, via ads, this practically overnight cultural transformation: Sports betting is everywhere, and now accessible from your couch. Last year, Americans spent $160 billion on it. The easy availability means that people who otherwise might not have been tempted have gotten sucked in. Unlikely people'such as a Mormon father of four and Atlantic staff writer'are betting on sports these days. In the case of McKay Coppins, it was supposed to be...
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