Allison Schrager, Columnist

Does the US Now Have a Casino Economy? Yes and No

November 17, 2025 at 11:00 AM UTC

Allison Schrager is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering economics. A senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, she is author of “An Economist Walks Into a Brothel: And Other Unexpected Places to Understand Risk.”

What if you had put it all on black?
Photographer: Eduardo Leal/AFP

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There is a frenetic, sweaty-palm feel to the US economy lately. Markets are looking frothy and consumers are anxious, and meanwhile the gambling and stock markets are converging as people bet on all sorts of strange assets and events. Half of young men in the US have an online sports betting account, and some are developing a problem.

All of which raises the question: Are we in a casino economy, a risky free-for-all that is bound to crash and burn? The short, unsatisfying answer is — yes and no. In many ways the economy has never been safer, but people are avoiding healthy risks and taking bad ones.