Sports betting used to be a Sunday habit, but for a growing share of Americans, and an even larger portion of Gen Z, it’s starting to look like a backup financial plan.
New research from Bank of America Institute shows that across every generation, people see prediction-market contracts as even more investment-like than sports bets. Tracking payments flowing to and from betting platforms, the bank found that customers of all generations recovered less than 75 cents for every dollar they sent in for each month this year. Gen Z recovered more than any other generation, with most getting back over 80 cents per dollar, but still fell well short of breaking even.
