When McKay Coppins set out to report on the explosive growth of the sports-betting industry, his editors thought he should experience the phenomenon firsthand—so he spent an NFL season as an online gambler. His reporting took him to Las Vegas, where he wanted to see how betting online compared with gambling the old-fashioned way. Coppins needed a guide to show him around the casino. Atlantic staff writer Tom Nichols stepped in. Read more about their time in Vegas, and find Coppins’s April cover story, at the link. 🎨: Michael Reaves / Getty Images; Harry How / Getty Images; Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images; Nextrecord Archives / Getty Images; D. Corson / ClassicStock / Getty Images; B. Tanaka / Corbis Documentary / Getty Images; Keystone-France / Gamma-Keystone / Getty Images; Yoshikazu Tsuno / AFP / Getty Images; Bettmann / Getty Images; ullstein bild / Getty Images; EvgeniyShkolenko / Creatas Video+ / Getty Images; BBC Archive / BBC Creative/ Getty Images; Clive Mason / Getty Images; Bernard Annebicque / Sygma/Sygma / Getty Images; Hulton-Deutsch Collection / Corbis / Getty Images; Michael Montfor t /Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images; Found Image Holdings / Corbis / Getty Images; George Rose / Getty Images