The Supreme Court looks as if they will soon be handing over the legality of sports betting to the individual states. This would, in effect, make sports betting legal nationwide for any state whose voters approve it.

Leading the charge for those states is New Jersey, whose constituents voted in favor of allowing sports betting in the state in 2011. In the six years since the vote, federal courts have blocked NJ time and time again from allowing sports betting at its racetracks and casinos.

Now, with the seemingly imminent support of SCOTUS behind them, the people of New Jersey and the 18 other states that banded with them will soon be allowed to legally partake in sports betting.

Technically speaking, this won’t have an immediate affect on esports or gaming. Neither esports nor gaming are mentioned anywhere in the suit. That being said, this decision will almost certainly have a major impact on the long term future of esports.   

There is a massive esports betting economy that thrives in the grayer areas of the internet. Several teams and players have already been embroiled in match-fixing and betting scandals that have rocked the foundation of the esports they were a part of.  

CS:GO has proven to be especially susceptible with their skin gambling problem, but they’re not the only ones to have trouble. South Korea has had problems with match-fixing for nearly a decade. Just earlier this year Lee “Life” Seung-hyun recieved a lifetime ban for his part in a StarCraft II match-fixing saga.

Esports certainly aren’t unique. Every major sport has gone through its fair share of gambling, betting and match-fixing problems. From baseball’s “Black Sox” and the NBA’s Tim Donaghy, to professional boxing, who’s had such a dominant match-fixing problem that the legitimacy of nearly every bout is put into question.

Allowing sports betting could amplify the problem not just for baseball, basketball and boxing, but for all sports and competitions, esports included. As it is, esports are hugely unregulated and unpredictable. If they were to be caught in any extremely high-profile match-fixing cases, their integrity could be stripped away in no time. Then esports would suffer the same unfortunate fate as boxing, experiencing only fringe popularity with every result questioned by the masses. 

On the flip side, legalizing sports betting could also make for more organization and transparency, which could make match-fixing more difficult for everyone involved.

That’s the thing, without a crystal ball, there’s really no way to tell how legal sports gambling might impact esports. And who knows what it might mean for loot boxes and their status as ‘maybe-maybe not gambling.’ That’s another discussion in and of itself. 

For now, SCOTUS has yet to hand down an official decision on the matter. But with an underground betting economy in excess of $150 billion annually, rest assured that if they do in essence approve sports betting, it will impact esports in some form or another.