With the big game now in the books, the normally busy Super Bowl betting in Las Vegas was pretty quiet this year. Yet another victim of the Coronavirus pandemic. Usually, the Super Bowl will bring somewhere near 300,000 visitors to Sin City and boost the Nevada economy upwards of $500 million, WITH $100 million coming from bets placed on the game. But with COVID still forcing closures, occupancy limits, and other restrictions on business Vegas is struggling at about 50% of normal capacity. The state of Nevada remains under severe restrictions at 25% of capacity for many public venues. The…

As the economic free fall continues for the gambling industry amidst the Coronavirus pandemic, New Jersey sports betting has finally overtaken Nevada as leader of the American market. New Jersey’s total handle was over $6 billion last year, while Nevada sports gambling took in only $4.3 billion in 2020. Nevada regulators cited the coronavirus pandemic for the falling revenue. The first legal bet in New Jersey was placed in June of 2018. “The reason for the decrease to this calendar year was the result of the suspension of gaming operations from March 18 through June 4 due to COVID-19,” the…

Regulated US internet betting just hit an amazing, all-time high over the weekend… due in large part to the opening of Virginia and Michigan online gambling! The NFL’s Conference Championships over the weekend brought out the bettors across 17 states and Washington, DC. That resulted in a 260% increase in legal gambling transactions placed over the web from the same time last year. Just from the two newest markets in Michigan and Virginia there were well over 7 million bets places by 400,000 individual accounts. Many jurisdictions are now starting to take notice that all that money (and potential tax…

A key piece of legislation from 2019 will allow for the regulation Puerto Rico sports betting starting later this year. That legislation was amended last year to permit the activity and signed into law by Governor Vázquez Garced. Hope is that betting on sports will create additional tax revenue and jobs. However, the Puerto Rican Gaming Commission notes that the law must be updated to include the amendments made late last year. Still, the hop and expectation is that hope is that Puerto Rico sports betting will launch by April. Under the new law, wagers on sporting events would be…

Washington sports betting is looking to expand beyond the walls of Tribal casinos. For the second year in a row a new bill was introduced in the Senate to bring sports gambling to bettors in venues across the state. The bill would deliver sports betting to licensed card rooms and horse tracks. A similar proposal bill failed last year, but this time supporters say there is bipartisan support for the legislation. Betting on sporting events was finally approved within the borders of the state last year, but only for Tribal Gaming establishments. You can read more about expanding Washington sports…

In a case that has enormous implications for online gambling in America, the US Department of Justice lost their Wire Act appeal against the New Hampshire Lottery Commission. The First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of New Hampshire, upholding the decision of a lower court and driving a nail in the Justice Department newest interpretation of the law. That interpretation could have criminalized interstate online poker and threatened the new, US online gambling industry altogether. Whereas many have insisted that the 1961 Federal Wire Act was always intended to apply to sports betting, the DOJ chose to broaden…

2020 may not have been the best for many people. But for New Jersey sports bets it was a record year! The state took in nearly $1 billion worth of wagers just in the month of December, capping off a record year which saw over $6 billion worth of total bets being placed. Figures released Wednesday by the Division of Gaming Enforcement show the state’s nine casinos and three horse tracks that accept sports wagers took in over $996 million worth of such wagers in December, the latest in a string of monthly records for the activity. New Jersey has…

If legislators can put their differences aside, then we could see Ohio sports betting finally launch in 2021. Last year the State Senate and House could not overcome disagreements about regulatory oversight of the activity. The inability to get a deal done prior to the end of  December means that the process will have to start over with the new legislative session. Three of the biggest sponsors of the previous sports betting legislation are no longer in office. Right now the only legal option for sports fans in Ohio is to drive drive to Pennsylvania. Mobile sports wagering is legal…