Online gambling has quietly become one of the biggest industries on the planet, and business is especially good in the United States nowadays. Now that the stigma around playing casino games and betting on sports has started to dissipate, more and more American businesses are starting to do business with gambling entities.
The growth of the gambling industry in the United States is tied in large part to the proliferation of legal sports betting.
In May 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court voted to strike down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), which prohibited sports betting in every state other than Nevada.
In the year-plus since the SCOTUS’ ruling, a number of states have decided to make sports betting legal, and more will follow in the months and years to come. While some states have opened land-based sportsbooks and casinos, the vast majority of the money that has been generated by legal sports betting has come from online bettors.
Professional Sports Leagues Doing Business
Sportsbooks have done business with professional sports leagues in Europe for years. The same hasn’t been true in the U.S., but the Supreme Court’s decision has led to a dramatic shift in philosophy in that regard. Since the ruling, the NBA, NFL, NHL, and Major League Baseball have all struck separate deals with gambling-related entities.
All four leagues have measures in place that are designed to try and preserve the integrity of their respective sports, while also monitoring for potentially illegal or suspicious betting activity.
Numerous leagues have already named certain betting entities as their “legal gambling partners,” and we have also seen sponsorship deals between individual teams and gambling operators, as well.
Some teams are going so far as to open sportsbooks within their own arenas. The NHL’s New Jersey Devils and NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers, among others, have announced plans to open betting lounges inside their home venues that will allow fans to place legal sports bets during games.
As recently as three years ago, such plans would have sounded fairly outlandish. Considerable progress has been made on that front in a very short amount of time.
New Jersey Paved the Way
Sports betting has been a massive source of revenue for Nevada for years, and other states want a piece of that pie.
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie led the state’s fight against PASPA, and the Garden State became the first state other than Nevada to open its doors to legal sports betting once the Supreme Court’s ruling was announced.
Since then, online gambling has become an incredibly lucrative industry in the state. New Jersey officially launched sports betting back in July of 2018 with the opening of a couple of retail sportsbooks. As of this writing, there are now 16 sportsbook apps and a total of 10 land-based sportsbooks scattered across the state.
The DraftKings Sportsbook launched back in early August 2019. DraftKings became the first online sportsbook in the state of New Jersey, and the first sports betting app available outside of Nevada in the process. According to New Jersey’s Division of Gaming Enforcement, online sports betting generated nearly $300 million in handle with about $25 million in revenue in the month of August.
While the land-based sportsbooks are doing just fine, the vast majority of bettors are placing their wagers over the internet or via mobile devices.
Over 80 percent of all sports bets placed in New Jersey in August occurred via an online or mobile platform, which is the biggest number the state has seen since sports betting officially launched over a year ago. Bettors wagered nearly $250 million via mobile devices in August.
With football season now in full swing, it’s safe to say the state can expect an even bigger sports betting financial windfall in the coming months.
Pennsylvania Not Far Behind
Another northeastern state, Pennsylvania, recently launched its own legal online betting operation. Pennsylvania launched legal online casino betting in mid-July of this year. The numbers for July are a bit skewed considering it was only a half month’s worth of data, but the numbers in August were encouraging.
Pennsylvania’s online casinos generated a combined $3.4 million in revenue in August, which was a 322 percent increase over the revenue from the previous month. While it was obviously a marked improvement, Pennsylvania is still a ways behind New Jersey in that regard.
Sports betting has been legal since late-2018, but the online operation went online earlier this summer.
Needless to say, sports betting is far ahead of casino gambling in the state to this point. Pennsylvania’s sportsbooks reported nearly $110 million in wagers with $9.9 million in revenue in the month of August, with three-fourths of that coming via online betting.
More on the Way
As of now, 13 states in all have legal sports betting. In addition to Nevada, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Indiana, Iowa, New York, Arkansas, West Virginia, Delaware, and Mississippi have regulated sports betting industries.
Some New Mexican Native American tribes have also been given the green light to offer legal sports bets. The same can be said about certain tribes in Oregon, as well.
Some states are in the process of putting together legislation in order to push for legalized sports betting, while some measures have failed in other states. The tide has turned significantly over the past couple of years, though, as more and more states have begun to realize that offering legalized sports betting is a great way to enhance revenue.
If you’re in a state that offers legalized online or casino betting, why not jump right in? Finding a reputable and trustworthy site is the first and most important step you can take when it comes to enjoying a successful gambling endeavor.
If you need a guide, all of the sites on LegitGamblingSites.com have been thoroughly vetted, reviewed, and ranked in an attempt to give you a clear head when it comes to choosing the right betting site.
Online betting, whether it’s casino games or sports wagering, is one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States. And it’s only going to get bigger and bigger from here.