This is an excerpt from Business of Sports Betting epub, The by Becky Harris, John T. Holden & Gil B. Fried.

sports betting and betting have been carefully intertwined since the start of arranged competitions. Even ancient civilizations bet on sports:

- As far back as 4000 to 3000 BC, ancient Egyptians bet on dice, parlor game, and feats of skill, such as chariot racing and fencing (Bulski, 2020).
- Betting on sports took place during the ancient Olympic Games, around 800 to 700 BC ("Sports Betting History," n.d.).
- In ancient Rome, banking on video games and races was commonplace. Though gambling was periodically disallowed in ancient Rome, exceptions were made for vacations, on which gambling was welcomed. In the exact same age as the early Olympic Games, Romans bank on chariot races (De Haas, n.d.).

In 1612, King James announced the very first lotto in Britain, an event that would play a pivotal role in moneying the Jamestown Colony. The lottery game included citizens purchasing tickets, which were then placed inside a barrel or drum, and then a name being picked. Lotteries played an essential function in America's development, with a number of the nation's very first public structures, colleges, roadways, canals, and religious buildings being funded through both public and personal lottery games. In 1776, the First Continental Congress started a lottery in the 13 nests to money the Revolutionary War (Little, 2019).

British settlers likewise brought an enthusiasm for horse racing with them, and the first racetrack was developed in 1665 on Long Island in New York City. Despite durations of unpopularity, horse racing has actually maintained a constant presence in the United States considering that a minimum of 1665, an abnormality amongst regulated kinds of gambling ("Horse Racing History," n.d.).

The growth of the United States westward saw a rise in betting activities such as poker and other card games. Illegal gaming establishments were regularly overlooked by authorities, and the goings-on were deemed a lesser evil than some of the other activities taken part in throughout that age, such as brawling. Some cities, such as San Francisco, even licensed restricted types of betting as a method of raising revenue (Holden & Edelman, 2020).

Professor I. Nelson Rose has classified three waves of legalized gambling in the United States (Rose, 2010).

1787 to Mid-1830s

- In this duration, betting was largely outlawed but was allowed to raise revenue through lotteries or raffles.
- Lotteries were often operated by both public and private organizations; nevertheless, by the middle of the 1800s, there were numerous lotto scandals across the United States. In some cases, illustrations never even happened.
- By the end of the 1830s, there was a push to ban gambling activities, and numerous state constitutions drafted in the era, including those of Nevada, California, and Texas, included a straight-out restriction on lottery games (Rose, 2010). Even today, lotteries stay banned in Nevada.
- This era saw the creation of the steamboat, which caused the introduction of riverboat gamblers, who were typically associated with unethical card games.

1840s to 1890s

- Following the Civil War, the when restricted lottery game reemerged as a way of funding Reconstruction in the American South. Some states reworded constitutions or lifted statutory restrictions on the lotto, and others merely ignored restrictions to enable state-licensed lottos throughout the post-Civil War age.
- As westward expansion continued, casino-style gaming ended up being popular. Casino video games were frequently rigged in favor of the operators, and eventually a lot of these games fell out of favor. An exception was card video games such as poker, in which each gamer, in theory, had an equivalent chance of winning.
- As cities in the west developed official governments, laws were passed to outlaw gambling establishment gaming.
- This 2nd wave of betting ended similar method as the first, with significant scandals surrounding lottery games. The Louisiana lotto was at the center of the biggest scandal of the time, in which lotto operators were accused of attempting to pay off the state legislature (Rose, 2010).

1900s to Present

- This period marks the expansion of legalized betting, starting with the reemergence of the state lottery in 1964.
- Nevada emerged as a destination for betting, followed by Atlantic City, New Jersey. Once novelties, casinos are now discovered in many states.
- Despite the damages related to gaming, numerous states see the revenue benefits as surpassing the dangers.
- As of 2022, all however two states, Utah and Hawaii, had some type of legal betting.