After legalizing sports betting last year, following a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that cleared the way for all 50 states to offer legal sports gambling, New Jersey is cashing in — big.
The Garden State surpassed Nevada in sports bets in May, taking in $318.9 million worth of bets compared to $317.4 million for the Silver State.
Overall, New Jersey has taken in more than $3 billion in sports bets since taking its first one in June 2018. Over that same period, Nevada handled $5.2 billion in bets. However, as May’s numbers illustrate, New Jersey is trending upward.
That trend is largely due to mobile bets, as 80 percent of sports bets in New Jersey are taken online or via smartphones, a percentage that industry officials expect to rise in the coming years.
According to Jay Kornegay of the Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas, New Jersey may keep its lead over Nevada thanks to its larger population.
“It was only a matter of time,” he said. “States with higher population numbers will continue to surpass Nevada, and New Jersey has a population of 9 million, not counting (people from) surrounding states, versus Nevada’s 2.5 million.”
Kornegay also said New Jersey may not maintain its lead for long and will likely be challenged by Pennsylvania as well as New York once the Empire State enters the legal sports betting market.
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