Can you remember the last time you watched a ballgame on television without being courted by one of the sports betting platforms? Bet $5 and they'll give you "sign-up bonuses" of up to $1,500. After that, they're betting they'll own you and they probably will.

TV ads for FanDuel, Draft Kings and other sports betting platforms now appear with greater frequency than Taylor Swift at a Kansas City Chiefs game. Move over, Miller Lite, Verizon and Geico. There's a new sports advertising Goliath on the air.

And it's not limited to TV ads, not by a long shot. Sports betting is everywhere. You can use apps on your cell phone to make bets around the clock, and there are even a couple of cable channels dedicated to sports betting. Modern sports at the college and professional levels are now saturated with ads and opportunities for legalized betting, which indicates how much money there is to be made from it.

As the NFL postseason advances, the NBA regular season shifts into high gear and college basketball approaches March Madness, it's a safe bet we'll be seeing even more of these ads. Lots more, with familiar celebrities doing the promoting. Baseball fans needn't worry, either, as there'll be daily wagering opportunities once our national pastime is in season. Heck, you'll even be able to bet on exhibition games.

Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx plugs BetMGM. Comedian Kevin Hart pushes Draft Kings. Future football Hall of Famer Rob Gronkowski is the face of FanDuel, often alongside former New England Patriots teammate Tom Brady. Hockey legend Wayne Gretzky is a partner and pitchman for the Canadian betting platform Bet99 (the number he wore during his professional hockey career). Even once-wholesome Disney has gotten in via its ESPN BET channel.

Sports betting has been part of sports coverage for decades even when betting on games was illegal. Newspapers everywhere — including The Day — post odds every day. More recently, some pre- and post-game football coverage on the major TV networks includes point spreads and other betting references. Recently, near the end of a close football game, the play-by-play announcer crowed: "Hold onto your (betting) tickets, folks!" Skeevy, yes, but it's a stain the networks can live with considering the advertising windfall they derive from betting platforms.

Back in the late 1980s while working for The Day, I covered a legislative conference in Newport where the topic of sports was on the agenda. One of the experts who spoke that day mentioned that even though sports betting was illegal nationwide at the time (except for Las Vegas, where anything goes) it was a thriving multi-billion underground business. Like speakeasies during Prohibition, it was illegal, but everyone knew it existed, lots of people played and law enforcement routinely looked the other way.

That day in Newport more than 35 years ago, you could almost see the room light up when legislators began to realize that sports betting could mean millions for their cash-starved states ... if only they could legalize it.

Like other states, Connecticut had legalized other forms of gambling — jai alai, dog racing, OTB and every imaginable form of lottery, which it continues to actively promote. And with the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes progressing toward federal recognition, casinos wouldn't be far behind. What the heck, legislators wondered, why not go full monty and legalize sports betting?

When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down state bans on commercial sports betting in 2018, the flood gates opened and giddy lawmakers moved with uncharacteristic speed to make sports betting legal. Today, 38 states — including Connecticut — and Washington, D.C., allow commercial sports betting and happily reap part of the profits from it.

Connecticut derives 13.5 percent of the proceeds, which will generate almost $25 million in annual tax revenue by 2026. Next in our state came legalized recreational marijuana, which produces more revenue. And now, the Connecticut legislature might even decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms — anything to increase the flow of money into its coffers. Can legalized prostitution be far behind?

For now, we'll continue to be inundated with ads trying to lure us into the world of sports betting. C'mon, the reasoning goes, what's the harm in a little action on a Sunday football game — say 20 bucks on the Chiefs to cover against the Dolphins? There's no harm, I suppose ... at least not at first.

However, for some bettors who start out modestly, it can spiral out of control. A $20 wager can quickly and easily become a half-dozen hundred-dollar bets, which can digress exponentially to far more than that, especially when a novice gamer is trying to recover losses from earlier bets and starts dipping into Junior's college fund.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is co-authoring legislation that would designate a portion of sports betting tax receipts to fund programs for problem gamblers. Given the proliferation of legalized gaming throughout the country, this is long-overdue, but at least a start.

"The growing legalization of sports and online betting, paired with the ability to place bets from your phone whenever you want have created a perfect storm for those suffering from gambling addiction," Blumenthal said.

As an avid fan since childhood, I've always found sports exciting enough without having to bet on which team will cover a spread ... or if a player will rush for 100 yards ... or if another will score 20 points ... or strike out 10 batters.

Clearly, though, the estimated 70 million Americans who will bet hundreds of millions of dollars during the NFL playoffs disagree and want or need the extra stimulation of a bet or two ... or more.

As with other addictions —drugs, alcohol, pornography, et al — legalized sports betting is not going to end well for many of them. Sadly, though, as long as it's generating money for our government, that's apparently OK with those who legalized it.

Well, as we are already beginning to see, it's not OK.

Bill Stanley, a former reporter at The Day, is a retired vice president of Lawrence + Memorial Hospital.