The Intersection of College Basketball and Casino Culture: A Deep Dive
Basketball has exploded in popularity in the past two decades, even becoming the second most popular sport in the world. With over 2 billion fans globally, basketball has recently overtaken cricket, and is now only behind football in terms of success. However, while professional football is thriving worldwide, in the USA, college ball is growing an audience larger than ever.
A lot of people have been getting into the spirit of college basketball, and finding some similarities between enjoyment of the sport, and engaging with casinos. Because of that, we thought we would look into the parallels that can be drawn between college basketball and gambling, and how the two industries feed into each other.
A Fun Pastime
College basketball is often associated with betting. However, there is no reason that a fan of the sport must wager on the games. Even those that enjoy betting don’t necessarily have to place money on every game. In a similar way, gambling does not always have to mean risking money.
To many, that may seem a bit paradoxical. After all, doesn’t gambling, by necessity, involve risking money? Well, if you visit the numerous USA social casinos by Casinofy, you will find out exactly what we are talking about. There, you can play your favorite casino games without risk.
For those who don’t know, a social casino is a website that lets you play gambling games, sans the gambling. In other words, you are just having fun with friends or strangers. In much the same way that a betting enthusiast might watch a game of college ball without wagering, gamblers can play a few rounds of poker at no risk to themselves.
Betting and Gambling
Though people don’t necessarily have to wager on college ball, the truth is that many do. In fact, a lot more people wager nowadays than ever before. In much the same way, gambling has grown drastically in the past few decades, becoming one of the biggest entertainment industries in the world.
March Madness, one of the most popular events in college basketball takes place every year. According to the latest estimates, American gamblers bet close to 3 billion U.S. dollars on the NCAAB event. In a similar fashion, gambling is on the rise in the United States.
Americans are gambling more than ever, with billions of dollars going to online and land-based casinos. Texas Hold ‘em has become the most popular poker variant in the world, precisely because of American influence on the gambling market. Online casinos have particularly had an influence, which brings us to our third point.
Digital Revolution
Of course, there are plenty of Americans that still want to visit bookies, and place their wagers. However, for the most part, the digital world has overtaken both the betting and gambling industry. Online bookies often list the best odds for the top college basketball events. On top of that, they are a lot more convenient to visit, as they only require you to have a phone and internet access.
On the other hand, online casinos are a bit more complicated. The laws in America surrounding iGaming differ from state to state. So, there are currently only six states that have legalized online gambling. New Jersey is particularly successful, having been the first state to do so. The gambling industry online in NJ is thriving, and is prompting many other states to follow suit.
While it is true that only six states have legalized gambling, in many other states residents are still capable of visiting online casinos. This is because the laws prohibit operating a business, but not necessarily gambling using an offshore website. So, we wouldn’t be surprised if iGaming, like basketball, continues to grow in the future.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are some surprising correlations between online gambling and college basketball. While they do share some things in common, the two are still very distinct in their own ways. Just because one is a fan of casinos, does not mean that they will like college ball, or vice versa. Yet, there are those who’ve found that certain similarities between fans of both exist.