If New York legalized sports betting, Resorts World New York City’s sportsbook would become a major destination for sports bettors.
Though the state of New York has not legalized sports betting yet, new estimates suggest that New York will overtake Nevada as the top-grossing US state for sports betting by the year 2023. Estimates for the amount of annual revenue for the US sports betting market 5 years from now range between $3.1 billion and $5.2 billion.
Gambling Compliance, an independent gaming analysis firm, released a report that predicted New York would have $700 million in sportsbook revenues by the year 2023. Nevada, which produced $248 million in revenues in 2017, is expected to have around $300 million in sportsbook revenues by 2023.
The same report predicted that as many as 37 U.S. states could have some form of sports betting in the next five years. At the moment, 7 U.S. states have legalized sports betting in some form: Nevada, Delaware, New Jersey, Montana, Oregon, Delaware, and Mississippi.
James Kilby’s Sportsbook Predictions
James Kilsby, managing director of GamblingCompliance and co-author of the report, said of the emerging US legal bookmaker market, “The U.S. sports betting market is set to quickly become one of the largest in the world, surpassing the U.K. and potentially China within five years.”
“A state-by-state expansion of sports betting is going to be complicated, with various stakeholders including gaming and fantasy-sports operators, major sports leagues, Indian tribes and others likely to lobby for divergent policies as they bid to shape legislation and regulations in their favor.”
Kilby believes the American northeast will produce the largest revenues as a region. That makes sense, since the northeast includes the largest concentration of population centers in the United States. Also, a larger concentration of sports franchices are found in the northeast than elsewhere in the USA.
Sportsbooks in California, Texas, and Florida?
The report suggested that California, Texas, and Florida could become top sports betting hubs, but each likely will face oppositional forces who might hold back legal sports betting. Texas has legal betting on horse racing and lotteries, but bans casino gambling. Texans who like to gamble drive to Lake Charles or Shreveport/Bossier City, Louisiana or Thackerville and Durant, Oklahoma to gamble in casinos. The Texas legislature’s social conservative point-of-view means gambling is seen as a sin or vice, so legalized sports betting is a pipe dream — despite Texans’ love of sports.
California has plenty of land-based gambling dens, but if the bitter fight over online poker legislation is any indication, the various competing tribal casinos could hamstring efforts to legalize sports betting. While California casinos likely would see sportsbooks as potentially more lucrative, California has over 180 gaming venues which must get on the same page.
Florida faces, in many ways, a combination of the issues which Texas and California face. Florida’s state legislature is controlled by social conservatives for the time being, so gambling expansion legizlation might not pass muster. At the same time, the Seminole Tribe of Florida has significant influence. The Seminoles has combined with the Disney Company to back a state amendment which would require a statewide vote to approve any gambling expansion whatsoever. Such a bill could complicate matters, if the tribe ever wants legal sports betting in any of its 7 casinos in the state.
Wave of Sports Betting Bills in 2019?
Despite the issues which might obstruct progress in several of the biggest U.S. states, James Kilby believes a big wave of sports betting legislation can be expected in 2019. Kilby wrote, “We expect sports betting bills to come thick and fast when state legislatures reconvene for their 2019 legislative sessions.”
Recently, Mississippi became the 7th U.S. state to legalize sports betting. Several other states have discussed such bills, including Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, West Virginia, and New York. It is the last state on the list, which has spent less time on the issue than the others listed, which Gambling Compliance believes could reap the biggest windfall from legal sports betting.
