The state of New Jersey registered more revenue from sports betting in May than any other state in the country, even more than Nevada.
New Jersey dethrones Nevada
According to reports by gambling regulators in both Nevada and New Jersey, the latter saw gambling revenues of $318.9 million. Nevada on the other hand saw $317.4 million in revenue that month. From these betting revenues, racetracks and casinos in New Jersey saw $15.5 million in revenue. Nevada on the other hand saw $11.6 million. Revenue from table games, counter and card games fell by 19%. It was not all loss however as there was some reprieve in other areas. 1 cent machines saw revenue grow by 4% while there was a marginal fall in multi denomination slots, 0.5%.
Last year, New Jersey won a case in the Supreme Court where it was seeking to overturn the ban on sports betting across the country. The win cleared the way for all fifty states in the country to legalize sports betting. From the looks of things, New Jersey went all in when it comes to sports betting. It has just dethroned Nevada as the country’s sports betting capital.
Raymond Lesniak, the NJ state senator said he already saw this coming a long time ago. Lesniak led the state’s efforts to see the prohibition on sports betting in most states across the country removed. He noted that New Jersey is a sports betting hotbed stating that it would thwart Nevada and never look back.
Neighbouring states’ sports betting growth may rival New Jersey
Jay Kornegay says that there is a chance New Jersey could maintain this lead over Nevada. He said that it is only a matter of time and it is partly because it has a larger population. According to Kornegay, higher populated states will continue seeing more revenue than Nevada which has a population of 2.5 million. The population in New Jersey reaches 9 million, not counting people from neighbouring states.
He stated that among the reasons why Nevada fell behind New Jersey was the number of NBA basketball playoffs. There were relatively fewer NBA basketball playoffs this year compared to previous ones. Kornegay is the Westgate SuperBook’s head, Las Vegas.
Since stepping in to the sports betting space, New Jersey has handled over $3 billion sports bets. Within the same period, i.e. June 2018 to date, Nevada has taken in $5.2 billion in sports bets. Whether New Jersey maintains this lead is anyone’s guess, especially considering other neighbouring states are considering legalizing sports betting.
Pennsylvania, which neighbours New Jersey to the west, is already offering sports betting including online betting. New York is also looking to get into the space but is currently grappling with legislation over online sports wagering. New Jersey’s dominance will likely be challenged by the growth of sports wagering in Pennsylvania and New York’s eventual entry.
New Jersey wooing gamblers with physical sportsbooks
This feat notwithstanding, Nevada still takes the cake as the go-to state for sports betting. Most gamblers still flock the state during major events such as the Super Bowl and the NCAA college tournament. This is something New Jersey is looking to imitate. Casinos in the state are investing millions towards physical sportsbooks to draw in traffic in the brick and mortar casinos. Within the past week, two Atlantic City casinos, the Borgata and Bally’s, have launched sportsbooks valued at over $20 million.
These expansions are taking place even though statistics show that most of New Jersey’s sports betting are online. The official data is 80%; a percentage which industry officials say will hit 90% in the next 5 to 10 years.
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