Sports betting is big money since legalization
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Americans have bet more than $125 billion on sports with legal gambling outlets in the four years since a U.S. Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for all 50 states to offer it.
On Saturday’s anniversary of the decision in a case brought by New Jersey, two-thirds of the states in the country have legalized sports betting.
In just four years, the industry has worked itself into the daily lives of millions of Americans — from those who plunk down money hoping for a certain outcome to those who watch TV broadcasts with odds calculations to those struggling with gambling problems.
You don’t have to be a gambler — or even a sports fan — to be affected: The industry tsunami of advertising is practically impossible to avoid, particularly on TV and radio but in other media as well. For example, FanDuel is the official odds provider for The Associated Press.
On May 14, 2018, the Supreme Court decided a case that had begun 10 years earlier in New Jersey as the longest of long shots: a bid to overturn a federal law, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, that restricted sports betting to just four states that met a 1991 deadline to legalize it.
Ray Lesniak, the now-retired state senator who filed the first lawsuit against the federal government over the issue, said he acted to provide money for states, protection for consumers and to attract experienced European betting companies to expand to the U.S. — all of which he said have come to pass.
“I made a good bet for New Jersey and for America,” he said, metaphorically speaking. (Lesniak also placed the first winning legal sports bet in his state, correctly picking France to win soccer’s World Cup, winning $400 on a $50 bet at 8-to-1 odds.)
Sports betting has been, and still is, pitched to state lawmakers as a source of new tax revenue, a particularly tempting option in trying financial times. It has generated $1.3 billion in state and local taxes since 2018 according to the American Gaming Association, but the amount many states keep is a mere drop in the bucket compared with their overall budget. Some states, like New York, tax mobile sports betting revenue at 51% — a rate that operators say is not sustainable in the long run.
As of Friday, 35 states plus Washington, D.C., have legalized sports betting, with 30 of those up and running, according to the AGA. (Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly signed a bill in her state Thursday). Competing measures will be on the November ballot in a state that has been the Holy Grail for sports betting: California, where wrangling between tribal casinos and commercial gambling companies has made the potential outcome unclear.