UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State President Eric Barron will be joined by a pair of University experts to talk about the rise of sports gambling and what has caused its recent popularity during the next episode of WPSU’s “Digging Deeper” on Sunday, Nov. 24.

Barron will be joined by John Affleck, journalism professor and the Knight Chair in Sports Journalism and Society in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, and Mike Ahlgren, assistant teaching professor and director of gaming initiatives for the School of Hospitality Management.

WPSU’s “Digging Deeper” will air at 10:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. on WPSU-TV.

Sports wagering became legal in Pennsylvania under the Gaming Expansion Act of 2017 and was put into effect with the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the restriction on sports gambling in 2018. In Pennsylvania, bets can be placed online and in brick-and-mortar locations, and the amount wagered in the state since its legality has been more than $600 million, according to Ahlgren.

Ahlgren, who worked for the American Gambling Association from 2004-06, said there were questions about whether or not online gambling is safe.

“A lot of research was being done on whether you could protect online gaming from people who were underage, for example,” he said. “Whether it was safe to place those bets, and so it's been tested for quite some time in anticipation of where we are now. The answer seems to be that we can do a pretty good job of guaranteeing that people that are of age are the people that are going on to there and that their funds are safe.”

The group will also talk about the economic impact for the state and how sports gambling may impact Penn State and college athletics.

Visit the WPSU website for more information on central Pennsylvania’s public media station. WPSU is an outreach service of Penn State.