I don't know where you grew up, but in almost every college guy's social network (usually already consisting of sports guys) we all knew a guy and didn't just bet in Vegas on vacation.

It has always been a significant part of 20-30 yo male paychecks, now it's just acceptable to advertise on ESPN.

There's always been gambling, but there's a lot more of it now. Gross revenue has more than doubled since 2020. I think it's safe to say gambling's new-found ubiquity is a big part.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1332999/gross-gaming-rev...

Again, this is referring to legal gambling, whilst I was referring to illegal sports betting, which we would have basically no good accurate way to devise the total number pre- or post- legalization.

For your argument to be true mass marketing must have zero effect on participation.

Is there data on this?

As someone who was a 20-30 year old male for 10 years, it’s not something I would have ever considered, the effort, risk, and return doesn’t seem worth it vs. just buying VTI or SCHB and then letting them sit?

Are the majority of 20s males really gambling a significant percentage of post-tax on sports? Has this displaced social fantasy football type games or the basketball brackets?

Recently it took off (and I do mean recently: post covid).

You have ex-crypto/dropship bros who turned to sport betting to make 'millions'. basically they're rolled by the apps for half their bets, their winnings are the payment, and their balance is always positive since their EV is 1.60 (when normal customers EV is .80).

That, plus advertising on college sports (including 'free bets'), it is really a big thing, even for 30yo+ people to be fair.