[ndriscoll]

> And what's stopping gamblers from bypassing online restrictions (VPNs, cryptocurrencies, etc)?

You ban financial institutions from facilitating illegal transactions and treat use of cryptocurrency to attempt to bypass restrictions as money laundering. In any case there's a large difference between "download the ESPN betting app" being advertised during games and "use a VPN to send monero to sportsbetting.ru" being info you can find from a dedicated scene. You don't really have to enforce things war-on-drugs style to keep it out of the mainstream/prevent major corporations from pushing it.

My understanding is that online gambling starting growing a lot more after legalization (and subsequent mass advertising), not the other way around. Disney has an official betting app now. Public schools push it on students.