A new report shows that the New York sports betting market will surpass Nevada as the biggest in the U.S. and the U.S. will do more gambling business than the United Kingdom by 2023. The GamblingCompliance report, titled “U.S. Sports Betting — Sizing the Post-PASPA Opportunity,” was released Wednesday. It indicates that between 25-37 states will legalize sports wagering within the next five years, and that seven of those states will offer sports betting in the next few months.
In fact, licensed operators in New Jersey and Delaware have already opened up shop while Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia are all currently writing or finalizing their sports betting regulations and plan to offer sports betting at some point this year.
According to the report, the sports betting market will be worth a minimum of $1.1 billion by 2023, and will ultimately be worth between $3.1-$5.3 billion, making it bigger than in the U.K. and possibly China. The study also suggests that it is unlikely that a federal framework for sports betting will emerge, but rather that individual states will govern sports betting within their borders. In addition, researchers predict that mobile sports betting will present the “largest opportunity from a revenue perspective.”
Legal NY Sports Betting Could Net the State $700 Million in Revenue, But the Empire State Must Make Sports Betting Legal.
Researchers at GamblingCompliance expect the New York market to reach $700 million in revenue within the next five years. That number is nearly three times the $252 million on a record handle of $4.8 billion that Nevada took in in 2017. Nevada has a 6.75 percent sports betting tax. New York’s tax rate is slated at 8.5 percent on gross revenue according to the leading sister bills introduced in the Senate and House during the 2018 session. But the bills also include a 0.20 percent “royalty” off-the-top on all wagers to be paid out to the professional sports leagues.
Before New York can become the state with the biggest sports betting windfall, it must first pass a law to legalize sports betting. New York lawmakers have been at odds over the last few months, with some wanting to move forward quickly to allow sports betting, others wanting to take a slower approach, as opposition from tribal groups have complicated matters as well. The end result was no new legislation while neighboring New Jersey rolled out sports betting on June 14. And Delaware became the first state in the post-PASPA era to take sports bets on June 5.
The Empire State has gaming at horse racetracks, casinos and off-track betting parlors, as well as tribal-owned gaming properties. The combination of stakeholders proved too much for lawmakers to wrangle in the waning days of the legislative session.
Lawmakers Struggled to Bring All the Major Stakeholders Together to Make NY Sports Betting Legal During the 2018 Legislative Session.
That said, New York in 2013 passed a law allowing for sports betting at four upstate casinos, but the state had yet to draft regulations for those casinos and was waiting for PASPA to be struck down, which happened on May 14. The state’s gaming commission is reportedly drafting regulations for the four casinos — Del Lago Resort and Casino (Seneca County), Tioga Downs and Casino (Nichols County), Rivers Casino and Resort (Schenectady County), Resorts World Catskills (Sullivan County).
Besides pointing to New York as having the biggest sports betting market in the country, the GamblingCompliance report predicts that multiple states will surpass Nevada in terms of revenue. The expectation is that both New Jersey and Pennsylvania will surpass $300 million in revenue, as well.
