On paper, it seems like a pretty straightforward idea: draw a digital line around a college campus to stop people inside it from placing mobile sports bets.
In practice, that line may have to wind around public roads, private businesses, hospitals, student housing, and mixed-use buildings. And the map would have to keep changing as the campus itself changes.
That’s the challenge behind a pair of bills in New York that would turn college campuses into no-bet zones for mobile wagering.
Most of the apps on our phones are built to feel social. We can chat, scroll, follow live events, and often see what other people are doing in real time.
Sports betting has moved from the counter to the smartphone, but open an online sportsbook, and you’ll notice that the experience hasn’t changed all that much.
There are still odds grids, bet slips, promotions, account balances, and casino lobbies full of games that users mostly play on their own.
That model is big business, but it’s also starting to run up against a different kind of user expectation.
Younger gamblers grew up in a completely different type of entertainment economy.
Before DraftKings and FanDuel, before Kalshi and Polymarket, there was Jay Cohen and World Sports Exchange.
When the gambling industry looks back on its modern roots, the conversation often begins with the Supreme Court striking down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act in 2018, opening the door for states to legalize sports betting.
From there, it often turns to the rise of DraftKings and FanDuel, the normalization of sportsbook advertising, and the legal fights that will ultimately determine the future of prediction markets.
Cohen sees it differently.
Back in 1996, Cohen, Steve Schillinger, and Haden Ware launched World Sports Exchange, better known as WSEX, from the small Eastern Caribbean island of Antigua.
