The signs that gambling has become embedded in American sports culture are impossible to miss. Sportsbooks have set up shop at stadiums, televised games include prods to bet during the action, and star athletes like LeBron James promote gambling companies as "talent ambassadors."

In the seven years since a Supreme Court decision cleared the way for legalized sports betting, the major U.S. sports leagues have shed any hesitations they had about gambling. They are now profiting -- to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars a year -- from partnerships with sports betting companies.

Team owners have made the calculation that the financial upside is worth "the potential expected likely loss if some form of scandal were to come up," said Marc Edelman, a law professor and director of sports

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