A year ago, the New Jersey sports betting fight was handed a victory by the Supreme Court, with the justices deeming the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) unconstitutional. Since then, New Jersey and six other states have provided citizens with what they said they wanted in 2011 when voters approved a sports betting referendum.

In the first three months of 2019, more than $1 billion has been legally wagered across the state. In March alone, New Jersey’s sports betting handle made up a third of the total amount bet legally on sports across all states with legal markets. That means valuable tax revenue, with nearly $20 million in new revenue going to the state since the ban was lifted.

The reason for New Jersey’s success is that the legal market operates with consumers’ best interests in mind: it gives consumers what they want. Even though 70 percent of sports bettors participating in the illegal market said they would move some or all of their business to legal markets if given the chance, that only happens if legal markets provide a competitive product.

To their credit, New Jersey lawmakers rejected special interest demands that would have diminished the competitiveness of the state’s legal sports books, such as league-proposed integrity fees, high taxes and mandated data monopolies. By emphasizing convenient mobile access and private business agreements between leagues, operators and gaming companies, New Jersey and other states have enabled their sports betting markets to thrive by offering consumers a wealth of betting options.

New Jersey is not the only state to enact successful legal sports betting markets. Today, new single-game sports betting markets are also legal and operational in Nevada, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Delaware, West Virginia, Mississippi and New Mexico.  Above all, the power to make these regulatory decisions must be left to state lawmakers and their constituents if we are to preserve our laboratories of democracy, lest we end up stuck with bad laws and their consequences for another 25 years. 

Read the full story on New Jersey sports betting at the The Hill