By SEAN HANNIGAN
Sports gambling in New Jersey is legal and the most recent Super Bowl LV showed its increasing popularity with a record 116 percent increase in bets from the previous year.
Super Bowl LV saw a massive $117 million deposited to New Jersey gambling sites such as FanDuel, William Hill, and DraftKings, according to LegalSportsReport.com. This historic increase should come as no surprise, as New Jersey sports betting and gambling has increased year after year since its initial legalization on May 14, 2018.
In the first 10 months that New Jersey allowed sports betting, gamblers wagered more than $2.3 billion.In 2019, gambling analyst Chris Grove said, “it’s possible that New Jersey could become the top market next year” and he was right.
“Bettors in New Jersey wagered $6 billion in 2020, obliterating the 5.4 billion record set by Nevada in 2019″, says sports expert Darren Rovell.
Some observers are pointing to the commercialization and accessibility of legalized sports gambling as well as stay-at-home orders causing some at home to seek a thrill through the few sports and activities they have access to. Rovell points to the accessibility that New Jersey has to online gambling, along with the dense population.
New Jersey has access to more than 20 mobile sportsbooks, which allows gamblers to log in anywhere within the state borders. States such as Nevada still require residents to place bets in person at actual sportsbook locations, impeding any sort of casual bettor.
Dan Rosales, an employee at 4th Down Sports Bar in Brooklyn, New York says New Jersey dominates the sports gambling world, because of the ease of casting online bets.
“Well for starters, you can’t really bet in New York, there are Native American reservations you can bet at, but New York City doesn’t have legal online sports betting. Everyone goes to New Jersey or you can just Venmo a friend in New Jersey to place a bet for them,” Rosales said.
New Jersey is benefitting from New York’s failure to launch any mobile gambling, however, New York is considering a move to legalize sports betting this year, which could decrease the numbers in New Jersey if it is passed.
While sports gambling is on the rise, but gambling in general, including horse tracks and casinos, has taken a hit with a 17 percent decrease in revenue due to Covid-19.
This leads some observers to believe that those who would normally spend money at the bars, or at casinos, are turning to mobile gambling.
Robert Hanny, a frequenter of New Jersey horse tracks, said online gambling is a form of entertainment. “Well it’s really been nonexistent. It was my way of enjoying a Sunday in retirement. I would never gamble more than I was willing to lose, and when we all got the stay-at-home orders, I put a few dollars down here or there on the mobile sites. It wasn’t as fun, but it was better than nothing,” Hanny said.
ATLANTIC CITY — New Jersey’s sports betting juggernaut slowed a bit in January, even as those bets and internet gambling helped the Atlantic City casinos avoid a revenue decrease for the month, according to figures released Wednesday. https://t.co/VVEG4DjTgc
— Press of AC (@ThePressofAC) February 17, 2021
Bettors are not the only ones profiting from legalized gambling, the State of New Jersey does too. New Jersey gained $58.5 million in October alone, which was a 26 percent increase over 2019.
*If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, call the National Gambling Helpline at 1-800-522-4700 for help and resources*
This was an interesting topic and a very informative article. The links were added in a manner that did not distract from the story. I think the helpline provided at the bottom was creative and necessary, it felt very professional.
The story was interesting and definitely connected to us as New Jersey residents who are or are almost of legal gambling age. I think the quotes from interviews really added to it as well and gave us a view of how uniquely convenient gambling is in our state. It was concise and informative and I enjoyed it.
It is fascinating to see how NJ has taken sports betting and just ran with it. This article is nicely put together and has some very interesting information. The number of sports books available in NJ is crazy. Having more than 20 really gives everybody and option and I had no idea there were that many. It is nice to see sports betting become such a success in New Jersey.
I really liked this story! All of the content and reporting was very well suited, but I wish there was more discussion about gambling as an issue — maybe just one paragraph about that would be fine