1 in 5 US adults will bet on this year’s Super Bowl

A record 50.4 million American adults plan to bet on this year’s Super Bowl, wagering a total of $16 billion, according to predictions from the American Gaming Association, reports the Associated Press.

The gambling industry’s national trade group forecasts that one in five American adults will place a bet on Sunday’s NFL championship game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs.

The estimate includes legal bets, and those placed with illegal bookies or casually among friends or relatives.

The total amount expected to be wagered this year is more than double the amount from last year as the legal U.S. sports betting market continues to grow.

There are three additional states offering legal sports betting this year — Kansas, Ohio, and Massachusetts — compared with a year earlier, for a total of 33 states plus Washington, D.C. Maryland also added mobile sports betting in the past year, but it had in-person wagering for last year’s Super Bowl.

More than half of all American adults live in a market where sports betting is legal.