This World Cup will be the largest gambling event of all time.
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An expanded field of 48 teams means more matches than ever, creating more opportunities to wager as sports-gambling fever is in full force across the US, one of the host nations.Amid the constant stream of ads promoting bookmakers and prediction markets on TV and online, it can be easy to forget that gambling your savings can also be devastating. Gambling is a booming industry, after all, because it makes billions of dollars of revenue from bettors losing.We spoke to three behavioral experts to better understand how to gamble responsibly and whether "gamble responsibly" is even the right terminology. Their main advice was to see betting as entertainment, not a way to make money.Here are four suggested safeguards worth adopting to make sure your World Cup wagers don't turn into a life-altering binge.Keep a budgetIf there's one "golden rule" in gambling, it's setting a budget, Mark Griffiths, who has studied gambling addiction for four decades, told Business Insider."You have a budget, and you stick to that budget," Griffiths, distinguished professor of behavioral addiction at Nottingham Trent University, said. "It's all about not spending more than you can afford to lose."'
