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If you're a sports fan in general, or a basketball fan in particular, then this week is probably something you've looked forward to -- the beginning of the NCAA basketball tournaments, often referred to as "March Madness" because of the at-times unpredictable nature of the intense competition.
And while March Madness is nothing new, the meteoric rise of legalized sports gambling is -- at least relatively speaking.
According to an Associated Press story, it is estimated that 17% of American adults (not just sports fans, but all adults) will place a bet of some kind on the tournament, which actually began Tuesday but gets underway in earnest today.
In the past, that often meant having a bracket pool in which participants pay an often-small entry fee and then attempt to predict the outcome of the tournament's games, which will still overwhelmingly be the most-popular method of betting.
But with legal sportsbooks now open in many places in the U.S., including Pennsylvania, and accessible to anyone age 21 or older with a computer or smartphone, the wagering possibilities are literally endless.
As we often say, we're not here to lecture adults on what to do with their own, hard-earned money.
This is America, after all, and if you want to wager a little or a lot on the tournament, that's your choice. You just have to live with it.
But we will caution you on gambling and, at the least, urge you to set some limits on how much you wager and to only bet an amount you can afford to lose.
We do not support the continued proliferation of gambling and we're disappointed to see such a meteoric rise in gambling advertisements on social media and especially on the tube for children to see at all times of the day.
Is it exciting to win a bet?
Absolutely.
We just urge anyone who wagers to be careful.
As the saying goes, casinos don't make money by the public winning often.
That applies at the sportsbook as much as it does at the roulette table.
So, by all means, if you like basketball, enjoy the tournament.
Just make sure that, if you bet on the games and lose, it won't create a different type of March madness.