Football is one of, if not the most popular sport in America, and one of its largest events is the Super Bowl which takes place in February each year. A large part of the culture that comes along with this game is the parties and a very popular thing to do at those parties is to gamble on the game. This is seen with people betting against others on who will win the game or they do “squares”.

Squares is a 10×10 grid that is set up numbered 0-9 on the columns and rows randomly. Each square will indicate a certain score for each of the teams, every box can be bought for a certain set price which is often $1 per square. Each person who is playing will have to choose a certain number of squares until the board is full, and then the scores for each column and row will be randomly selected. There will be a winner each quarter depending on who has the square with the score that matches the game.

Another large part of betting is the player parlays that can be done on sports betting apps. These are bets placed on whether a player will exceed or fail a certain stat threshold. You will see player props like ‘Patrick Mahomes over/under 285.5 passing yards’ or ‘A.J. Brown over/under 69.5 receiving yards.’

Some sports betting apps provide specials where you can place an almost automatic bet for something like ‘Patrick Mahomes over/under 0.5 passing yards’. This style of betting has become very popular over recent years with social media having large influences on sports culture. There are often promotions done by content creators to promote these gambling apps where they’ll give out a promo code to get free money to deposit onto the app. These styles of betting have made it easier for people to place sports bets without having to go to a casino in a place like Las Vegas.

The betting at these events may have longer-term effects on the participants though. Gambling is a very addictive activity and participating for fun at a party may lead a person to begin doing it as a regular activity. It may not seem like a big deal when you’re betting 10 or 20 dollars but that begins to spiral when you see some profit and get greedy for more. This is the kind of trapping scheme that gambling is where you have to throw away so much money just for a tiny chance of winning.

According to a survey done by ESPN, this year there were supposed to be 50.4 million adults that bet on the Super Bowl. This would result in about $16 billion to be wagered on the game overall. This was double the estimate of last year, which shows the growth in popularity that gambling has experienced with its recent popularization on social media. There was a report by Caesars of a $1.2 million bet at halftime for over 62.5 points, which goes to show the lengths people are willing to go for these sports bets. Other sportsbooks also spoke about multiple $1 million+ bets being placed for the Philadelphia Eagles moneyline, meaning that the Eagles winning would win their bet.

Betting culture has been heavily popularized in the sports community and big sports events are now being seen as another opportunity for a bet. Betting is a negative action that is glorified because of its ability to produce money if gone correctly. Having fun at a social event is one thing, but don’t let betting become a habit that ruins your life.