OFFICE POOL$
Legal bets are No. 2 in March Madness
A casino trade group is predicting there will be $8.5 billion in wagering on the NCAA Tournament this year — but that only a small sliver of it will be legal.
Despite the fact that seven new states are allowing legal sports betting for the first time, fewer than one in 10 of an expected 47 million bettors nationwide will place their wagers legally — either through a casino sportsbook or an above-board app, according to an estimate by the American Gaming Association.
That’s because the big vehicle for sports betting continues to be the office pool — a popular yet below-board tradition that allows colleagues to participate against one another by wagering on which team wins its bracket or winds up the NCAA Division I champion.
“This is such a massive part of our culture,” Sara Slane, AGA’s senior vice president of public affairs, said during a Monday conference call. “At least now we have the opportunity to make it legal.”
Until sports betting was legalized at the federal level last May — when the US Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act — Nevada had all the NCAA Tournament’s legal action to itself.
Nevada is still expected to produce the largest legal handle — $300 million of the $400 million forecast by gambling-research firm The PlayUSA.com. But New Jersey is expected to take in $75 million from in-state bettors during its first year of March Madness.
PlayUSA.com expects the remaining $25 million to be spread across Delaware, Mississippi, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and West Virginia — the other states new to legal sports betting.
Dustin Gouker, lead analyst for PlayUSA.com, is especially high on the Garden State, noting that basketball has been drawing a higher share of wagering there than it has in Nevada. “That will likely translate well to the NCAA Tournament,” he said.
Since legal sports betting opened in New Jersey last June, more than $1.6 billion has been made in wagers, with sportsbooks raking in $112 million and the state keeping about $14 million in taxes, according to data compiled by PlayNJ.com.
The AGA expects 1-in-5 adults will get in on the March Madness action. By comparison, the Super Bowl drew just 1-in-10.