Gambling culture is enveloping American life: What was once a fringe vice is fast becoming a mass-market habit — raising urgent questions about addiction, fairness and regulation.

• You can now wager on everything: the midterms, the Oscars, the Second Coming (5% chance before next year), Axios' Nathan Bomey reports.

🎰 Danny Funt, author of "Everybody Loses: The Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Gambling," said: "It seems like everything is gambling now, and the appetite for gambling on the most obscure stuff is pretty bonkers."

• The entire activity has become "normalized," he adds: "This used to be something people did discreetly."
• 💰 The American Gaming Association projects that $1.7 billion will be legally wagered on today's big game.

Online sportsbooks took off after 2018, sparking a fundamental shift in gambling culture.

• The newest catalyst: Prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi, which let Americans risk money on nearly any event.
• Toni Gemayel, Coinbase's head of prediction markets: "If you're somebody that reads the news very closely and you may have an informed position or informed point of view, you can now express yourself on a position."

🏀 Recent scandals have exposed professional and collegiate sports' vulnerability to manipulation via gambling.

• Critics say some prediction market users — possibly including insiders — are capitalizing on specific news knowledge.

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This viral photo (1.6 million views) may've been the last straw: The day after The Washington Post laid off a third of its staff, Sir Will Lewis — the rarely-seen-at-work publisher and CEO — was spotted walking a literal red carpet at the NFL Honors award show in San Francisco, ahead of today's Super Bowl.

• Yesterday, Lewis was canned with a Saturday evening news release announcing CFO Jeff D'Onofrio will be acting publisher and CEO "effective immediately."
• A statement by Jeff Bezos, the paper's owner, didn't mention Lewis, who's already disappeared from today's print masthead.

📝 Lewis was long criticized by newsroom staffers for being absent and disengaged, Axios' Sara Fischer and Kerry Flynn report.

• His departure follows Wednesday's layoff of hundreds of journalists. The Post's renowned sports section and prize-winning photo staff will be shut down, with deep cuts in the Metro and international reporting corps.

Lewis wrote in a two-paragraph email that after "two years of transformation at The Washington Post, now is the right time for me to step aside."

• D'Onofrio joined the Post after working at Raptive, Tumblr and Google.

Lewis' tensions with the newsroom fueled a talent exodus, compounding the Post's business problems.

• Bezos said in his statement: "The Post has an essential journalistic mission and an extraordinary opportunity. Each and every day our readers give us a roadmap to success. The data tells us what is valuable and where to focus."

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says the U.S. wants a Russia–Ukraine peace deal by the summer, before President Trump shifts his focus to the midterms, Axios' Barak Ravid reports.

• Zelensky told reporters that the U.S. wants "to achieve everything by June, and they will do everything possible to ensure the war ends that way."
• That's ambitious: Wide gaps between Russia and Ukraine remain, and any deal will need Ukrainian voters' approval.

🪖 The main sticking point: Russia's demand that Ukraine withdraw from parts of Donbas it still controls.

• For the first time, Russia agreed to discuss a U.S. proposal to establish an economic zone in Donbas, Zelensky said.

🇺🇸 What's next: The U.S. side proposed that Ukrainian and Russian negotiators meet stateside — likely in Miami — in a week to keep talking, Zelensky said.

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Athletic trainers in video playback booths will spot concussions and other injuries during tonight's game, Axios San Francisco's Shawna Chen reports from Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, home of Super Bowl LX.

• The infamous "blue tent" comes into play when a blow to the head or neck results in injury behavior, such as shaking the head repeatedly, stumbling or looking dazed.
• Affected players are herded into the tent for evaluation by a team doctor and independent neurotrauma consultant. If they can't agree, they tend to err on the side of caution and consider players concussed.

⛑️ If you see a player going into the tent with someone wearing a red hat, that's a concussion evaluation "100% of the time," says NFL chief medical officer Allen Sills.

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More than half of the drugs listed on the new TrumpRx website have cheaper generic versions available elsewhere, Axios' Maya Goldman reports.

• Pristiq, a Pfizer antidepressant, costs about $200 with a TrumpRx coupon for a 30-day supply.
• But a comparable generic goes for less than $30 on GoodRx and for just $16.65 on Mark Cuban's CostPlusDrugs.

🧮 By the numbers: 26 of the 43 drugs listed on TrumpRx at launch have generic alternatives, per Anna Kaltenboeck, a drug pricing expert.

A White House spokesperson tells Axios cheaper alternatives may exist for some products, but the site's value lies in providing the lowest-cost option for branded products.

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At left, Savannah Guthrie and her siblings make a desperate video plea last evening to potential kidnappers of her mother, Nancy Guthrie, 84, who disappeared from her home in Tucson, Ariz., a week ago today.

At right, Guthrie, co-host of NBC's "Today" show, with her mom on the set in 2023.

"We received your message, and we understand," Guthrie says in the video. "We beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her. This is the only way we will have peace. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay."

• Guthrie was referring to a message sent to Tucson-based CBS station KOLD on Friday, the FBI in Phoenix told AP.

The station was one of multiple outlets that received alleged ransom letters. At least one letter demanded money.

• In a news conference on Thursday, law enforcement officials declined to say whether the letters are credible. They said one letter referenced Nancy Guthrie's Apple Watch and a specific feature of her property.

Investigators think she was taken against her will last weekend. DNA tests matched blood on her front porch.

• Concern about her health has grown: Authorities say she needs vital daily medicine. She is said to have a pacemaker and high blood pressure and heart issues, according to sheriff's dispatcher audio.

✈️ President Trump, speaking on Air Force One on Friday, said: "We have some clues that I think are very strong ... We have some things that may be coming out reasonably soon."

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America's 250th anniversary is colliding with a renewed battle over Black history, as the White House moves to smooth over and narrow how race and equity are discussed, Axios' Delano Massey writes.

• Federal agencies and cultural institutions have deleted or revised Black history content in response to President Trump's anti-DEI mandate, which the administration says restores neutrality.

The National Park Service recently removed or revised dozens of signs and displays related to the mistreatment of Native Americans and slavery — including a Philadelphia exhibit on the enslaved people George Washington held at the President's House.

• One report found that more than 6,700 federal datasets involving minority groups have been deleted, on topics including maternal mortality, sickle cell disease and environmental exposure in historically redlined neighborhoods.

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Three octogenarians are the only fans left in the exclusive "never missed a Super Bowl" club: Don Crisman of Maine, Gregory Eaton of Michigan and Tom Henschel of Florida are in Santa Clara, Calif., for the big game's 60th kickoff.

• But two are grappling with the fact that advancing years and decreasing mobility mean this is probably the last time, AP reports.

"This will definitely be the final one," said Crisman, a Patriots fan since the franchise started in 1959 as the Boston Patriots. "We made it to 60."

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🐰 1 for halftime: Bad Bunny songs to know.