Whether drawn in by Bad Bunny, goofy commercials or even a football game, today’s Super Bowl LX is expected to attract more than 130 million viewers in the U.S. and millions more worldwide.

Fact is, the day is all about big numbers. With more than 75,000 fans expected to attend the game at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, the economic impact on the Bay Area is anticipated to hit $500 million with some estimates even higher.

Those numbers are impressive, but in a nation of increasingly feverish sports bettors the most important number is 4.5, the game’s point spread. The American Gaming Association estimates Americans will legally bet $1.76 billion on the game and adds that it’s a 27 percent increase over 2025. AGA president and CEO Bill Miller enthuses, “By choosing legal, regulated sportsbooks, fans are having fun while supporting a safe and responsible market.”

The AGA departed from its annual finger-wag against illegal bookmaking and this year focused on the rise of prediction markets, which it asserts operate as unfettered contract betting sites cloaked as investment portals. (Insert notice of ongoing litigation here.) Prediction markets represent the latest development in a rapidly unwinding universe of sports gambling since 2018 when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), which essentially limited legal bookmaking to Nevada.

Since then, a majority of states has embraced legalized sports gambling with enthusiastic support from professional leagues and the NCAA, which preached for generations about the dangers of proliferation. Now it’s fattening up at the big score buffet and reminding the rest of us that — unfortunate corruption scandals aside — no deal is bad if you get a piece of it.

Into this maelstrom strolls longtime journalist Danny Funt, who takes on the multifaceted recent history of sports betting in his thorough and highly readable new book, Everybody Loses: The Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Gambling. There’s something in it for the hunch player and hardcore handicapper alike. Namely, the truth about the way we gamble now and how we got here.

Funt works an A-list of sources to capture the arc of change that continues apace. It’s a story that includes strict sports gambling prohibitionists who later give thumbs-up to a league’s full embrace of the betting bonanza. It’s one part narrative history, one part cautionary tale and no one with the power to rein it in appears the least bit interested in doing so.

At an AGA Sports Betting Executive Summit in 2019, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman was a keynote speaker. When he’d previously served as the NBA’s general counsel, he once predicted the spread of legalized betting on games would “ruin sports.” After PASPA’s repeal, he was a touch more pragmatic. “Once the Supreme Court ruled,” he said, “we had to get with the program. You either evolve or you become extinct. We decided to take a forward-looking, practical approach.”

That practical approach means billions for the leagues and the corporate bookmakers.

Along the way, Funt dives into the skyrocket success story of FanDuel and DraftKings, which until relatively recently appeared to represent the next generation in the evolution. In a gambling universe now awash in digital currency and prediction markets, he’ll have plenty of material to add for the paperback edition.

It wasn’t that many years ago that the leagues still warned of the calamity that would surely accompany the spread of sports gambling. As NBA president, David Stern lamented the impact celebrating betting would have on the fabric of the game. “In essence, what sports betting does is transform the betting line into the bottom line,” he told Congress. “When our fans begin to leave games feeling disappointed or cheated even though ‘their’ team has won, that spells trouble.” But his opposition now feels as old as my Chuck Taylor high tops.

As expected, the sportsbooks and bookmakers of Las Vegas are well represented in Funt’s reporting. He made the rounds and spoke with some wise and witty characters, some of whom I’ve been acquainted with for decades. He balances old-school perspective with new-age practitioners. He also shares the highs and at times tragic lows that gamblers experience.

Although one of the book’s celebrated endorsers calls it a “shocking” work of investigative reporting, at this point only children and the sentimental will raise an eyebrow about its findings and facts. That’s not a criticism, just part of the sad reality. It should come as no surprise that the proliferation and destigmatization of sports betting is a sure way to turn Bedford Falls into Pottersville.

By now this should be well known — even if millions of Americans don’t appear to give a damn. The dangers of rampant sports gambling, from rising rates of bankruptcy to game fixes at every level, are part of the deal. With billions at stake, and “amateur athletes” receiving their slice of the action, rooting for the home team comes with a caveat — as long as it covers the spread.

These days, I suspect many in the gaming industry consider the author a bookmaking buzzkill, a genuine spoilsport. Not that they’ll lose any sleep. They know the bottom line.

Funt’s depressing summation won’t light up the marquee at the AGA or a sportsbook near you, but he reminds us of what will likely be lost in a nation of gamblers for whom simply watching the game has become a quaint and meaningless act.

John L. Smith is an author and longtime columnist. He was born in Henderson and his family’s Nevada roots go back to 1881. His stories have appeared in New Lines, Time, Reader’s Digest, Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, Reuters and Desert Companion, among others.