Sports betting has been illegal in the United States (except one of its states) for the past 25 years. However, things changed in May 2018. The Supreme Court ruled against the infamous Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, known as PASPA.This decision was a massive win for the budding sports betting industry in the country. Now, every state can decide whether it would make sports betting legal in its constituency.Since then, seven states legalized sports betting while 16 others passed bills to that effect. In 24 other states, no recent bill has been introduced with legal sports betting in mind. However, this is expected to change soon.Many believe that sports betting is going to improve the state of the economy. A recent study conducted by NJGames shows that the total yearly spending by sport betting patrons and enthusiasts in the country is expected to be higher than $41B.As you’ll see in the infographic below, legalized betting is likely to contribute at least $21B to the total GDP of the US while also creating a direct source of income for at least 86,000 people. The direct labor income that legalized betting will bring to the table should be worth at least $4B. The indirect labor, which is projected to be at least $7B, is expected to be shared among over 129,000 people.The infographic goes into more detail on the impact that legalized betting will have on various aspects of the economy. Feel free to check it out, by clicking on the image below!

Click on the image to see full infographic; graphic courtesy of author.