The legal difference is sports betting is regulated as gambling by states and regulated as event contracts by CFTC.
The “same thing” regulated differently doesn’t make one legal and the other illegal.
The practical difference is that a state sportsbook license is a license to steal from losing bettors and ban winners, while CFTC puts strict requirements on fairness and market access.
Why don’t they just tokenize the oil in the Middle East and transport it across permissionless financial rails, thereby avoiding the Strait of Hormuz altogether
Olympic skiers are like “I have 2% body fat. I train 23 hours a day. I have had 87 surgeries” and Olympic snowboarders are like “I have smoked this many drugs today” and they hold up their hand which is in a mitten.
The zero alcohol movement is funny because a lot of people traded drinks with friends for social media doomscrolling, porn, and gambling by themselves.
The big political fight over the next 10 years is going to be between people who believe that adults should be allowed to do stupid things with their money and those that don't.