Follow any March Madness game, the popular NCAA basketball tournament, on your phone this week and it might feel like you’re experiencing the same pattern: score update, betting prompt, score update, betting prompt. Even Coinbase, the crypto app, is pushing March Madness “markets” to home screens.
The goal is to get a piece of the $3.3 billion the American Gaming Association predicts people will legally wager on the matchups this year. It’s the telltale sign of saturation — and normalization. Gambling has morphed from vice to mainstream entertainment. Along the way, it’s avoided the oversight its scale and risks warrant.
That ...