New York has four commercial casinos that offer sports betting. Residents must travel to these casinos to place bets, but sometimes its easier for them to just hop over to New Jersey and place a bet. New Jersey, meanwhile, is one of the top states with the healthiest sports betting markets. With these two neighbors having such different policies on sports betting, we’ll take a look at New York and New Jersey’s sports betting revenue, and compare their local betting markets.
Many bookie pay per head sportsbooks are seeing a rise in handle and revenue over the past few months. In New York’s case, their sports betting revenue shows an 18% year-on-year growth. While it looks good in paper for New York, it pales in comparison with New Jersey’s.
New York and New Jersey’s Sports Betting Revenue
Here at MyBettingDirectory.com, we keep track of the status of sports betting in each state. For New Jersey’s October numbers, we are seeing an $803 million handle- $744 million of it are from mobile wagers. Its revenue for October is at $58.5 million, which is more than 20 times higher than New York’s revenue for the same period. The gross gaming revenue for New York is $2.6 million, 85.7% higher than September’s $1.2 million.
New Jersey has very open laws on sports betting. In fact, residents are able to place wagers from anywhere in the state, through multiple platforms, as well as retail sportsbooks. Sadly, New York has a lot to do to be able to catch up with New Jersey’s status. Which is unfortunate, because even those who are recently asking how to I become a bookie are actually starting their own sportsbooks already.
Sports Betting Legislation in New York
The debate going on in New York centers on the discussion if the state needs constitutional amendments for sports betting laws to pass. There is, however, current legislation that aims to allow online and mobile sports betting in the state. This bill needs to pass the state assembly before it can be implemented. And even then, creating regulations for this could take the state a long time to figure out. Until then, New Yorkers will have to drive upstate, or take the shorter option and cross state borders to place their bets.