FILE – A basketball with a March Madness logo rests on a rack before a First Four game between Illinois and Mississippi State in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament Wednesday, March 15, 2023, in South Bend, Ind. As March Madness gets underway, more people than ever now can legally bet on sports. A total of 38 states and the District of Columbia now allow some form of sports betting. (AP Photo/Michael Caterina, File)
People in North Carolina may have a little more riding on this year’s NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, as they will be able to legally bet on the games through their smartphone apps and computers for the first time.
For the sixth straight year, the number of states allowing legal sports betting has expanded since the last rendition of March Madness. A total of 38 states, including New York, and the District of Columbia now allow some form of sports betting, including 30 states and the nation’s capital that allow online wagering.
That’s up from one state, Nevada, where people could legally wager on games during the 2018 college basketball tournaments before the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for expansion.
The rules for sports betting vary by state. For some like New York, you can bet on the 2024 NCAA Tournament but not on New York-based schools. Others allow bets not only on the outcome of any college games but also on a variety of other things, such as the number of points, rebounds, and assists that a particular player will tally.
Here are some things to know about sports betting as the tourneys open, with the men’s games starting Tuesday and the women’s competition beginning Wednesday.
BIG MONEY
Fans have long filled out NCAA tournament brackets while wagering in office pools or against friends and family. But those casual bets have increasingly been supplemented with more formal gambling.
The total amount bet on all sports through legal wagering sites exceeded $121 billion in…
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