In case you weren’t aware (and credit to you if that’s the case), people have been throwing dildos on the court at WNBA games.
- Offshore betting markets are allowing wagers on inappropriate and potentially harmful events – something that poses both safety risks and public decency concerns.
- State-regulated sportsbooks like avoid such markets due to legal and ethical oversight.
- The sex toy situation highlights the dangers of unregulated betting, where manipulation is easier and accountability is minimal.
Now, there are very obvious reasons why throwing a dildo at any sporting event is a bad idea. It’s annoying, it’s in bad taste, and if someone gets hit, they could get hurt. If you really need it explained to you, I’d rather you just let me come to your office and throw dildos at you while you try to fill out a spreadsheet.
As I prepare to pivot, I would remind you that this website, Covers, is dedicated to sports betting. So that’s the subject matter I’m going to stick to here. Maybe you’ll find the following in bad taste, too, but this is what I’m supposed to talk about: The sex toy incidents at WNBA games represent an argument for legalizing and regulating sports betting.
ANNOUNCING: Dildo dailies.
— Polymarket Sports (@PolymarketSport) August 6, 2025
You can now bet on which day(s) dildos will hit the WNBA court.
Because, in case you also weren’t aware, people are in fact betting on the throwing of dildos at WNBA games.
As I type this, offshore prediction market Polymarket is forecasting a 48% chance of another dildo being thrown at a WNBA game by Friday. This projection is based on people betting on that outcome; a user just bought 10 "Yes" contracts for 48 cents apiece, a $5 wager, in other words.
Polymarket even announced on Wednesday that, "BREAKING: WNBA betting volume on dildos surpasses betting volume for who will win the game."
At least one offshore sportsbook has been offering odds on similar outcomes as well, such as the color of the next dildo thrown on the court. So it’s a thing.
Guess where it’s not a thing? At onshore prediction markets and state-regulated online sportsbooks. Kalshi, DraftKings, and FanDuel are not offering these kinds of betting markets.
Why not, you ask? Well, just as it is obviously a bad idea to throw a dildo at a WNBA game, it is equally obviously a bad idea to offer and take bets on that.
You're really going to make me explain this, huh
Kalshi is not shy about “self-certifying” event contracts that people (namely, state-level sports betting regulators) have a problem with. But even Kalshi has thus far had enough shame or fear of regulatory repercussions so as not to post dildo-related betting markets. Trying to justify a dildo-related event contract as some kind of hedging tool or price-discovery mechanism would be a real laugh riot for everyone involved.
Oh, and I'd wager that Polymarket, which wants to return to the U.S. regulated market, will shelve any dildo-related betting markets before that happens.
A similar explanation exists for DraftKings or FanDuel. I can just imagine the absolute grilling they would face over the course of days, weeks, months, and years from the likes of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission or the Ohio Casino Control Commission if they even tried to book a bet on a sex toy.
When you regulate sports betting, you get a say over what people can bet. If you don’t like it, people can’t bet it. Now, there's a good argument for why you should try to offer people a good amount of stuff to bet, because you want them to play in a regulated market and not an unregulated one. We don't have to debate that too hotly here, though.
In short: Offshore sportsbooks and prediction markets don’t live in fear of having licenses pulled and doors shuttered by U.S. regulators. Onshore operators do.
And there are gambling-related reasons why betting on a dildo being thrown at a WNBA game is bad. For example: the very real possibility of someone making a bet on that and then going to the game and doing it. That’s not good for the athletes being subjected to this idiocy, and it’s also not good for people gambling real money on something so easily manipulated.
Correlation ≠ causation (unless you legalized sports betting)
The seemingly steady drip of sports betting-related scandals in college and professional sports, such as athletes reporting social media abuse and suspensions for gambling-related violations, may lead some to the conclusion that legalized sports betting could be the cause of this.
Some of those same people would be downplaying, disregarding or missing the fact that the opportunity for shenanigans existed widely before the widespread legalization that began in 2018, and would still exist even if you killed legalized sports betting tomorrow.
For real-time proof, look no further than an offshore sportsbook taking bets on dildo-throwing and the onshore sportsbooks that do not. In one corner, unregulated actors offering a real financial incentive to manipulate a sporting event with no serious deterrence. In the other ... not that. If you kill the latter, the former is still there.
Moreover, a state-regulated sportsbook that detects funny business will report said funny business to its regulators. How do you think we're learning about all these incidents? And no one wants to bet a game that’s fixed, unless they are in on the fix.
At the moment, at least, there is an option for legalized wagering that has some sense of shame and oversight. That is despite the ever-changing laws, rules, and taxes these operators try to abide by. These bookmakers are not perfect, but they’re within reach.
So, don’t throw a dildo at a WNBA game. And don’t bet on it happening either, because there is no guarantee that someone isn’t about to pull a fast one on you.
