A 5-Person Panel of Gaming Experts Met in Atlantic City at Anniversary Event
If you love to gamble on sports, then chances are you are also a fan of New Jersey, one of the first states in the U.S. to recognize the basic need for its residents to place wagers on sporting events and athletes, a place where gambling’s been legal for the last 45 years or so.
As reported by The Press of Atlantic City, there was an event held last week in Atlantic City to commemorate the 45th anniversary of voters there legalizing casino gaming, a gathering at which a 5-person panel of gaming experts held court and spoke about the local industry.
That group shared its advice on what would help exponentially grow the gaming market in Atlantic City, and The Press reported them as saying:
“Moving forward, if trends continue as they are, casino executives should emphasize sports betting, as it has grown to become one of the nation’s top gaming types. Esports, or competitive video gaming, should also top the casinos’ objectives, taking advantage of its popularity to revolutionize what the city offers to tourists.”
That recommendation makes perfect sense as the growing U.S. legal sports betting market continues to report multi-billion dollar annual handles, an income stream that New Jersey has enjoyed for almost half a century now thanks to some forward-thinking getting done.
That all happened in the last century, way back in the ’70s, kids.
In 1976, New Jersey Voters Legalized Casino Gambling in Atlantic City
The oldest gambling spot in the U.S. is Las Vegas in Nevada, a state that has enjoyed legal gaming since 1931 when then Governor Fred Balzar signed Assembly Bill 98 into law, but then about 45 years later the state of New Jersey got the idea to legalize gambling in Atlantic City.
It was a smart move meant to increase tourist flow and make some extra money and it has worked well over the years, A.C. is now a popular travel destination with exciting casinos, boardwalks, and beaches, and gambling is an activity that brought plenty of action there as planned.
That anniversary event last week in Atlantic City reported on by The Press was sponsored by the Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality, and Tourism at Stockton University, their goal to celebrate the revival of that city as a pseudo-cultural American landmark.
New Jersey is one of the most successful sports betting states in the Union.
New Jersey Sports Betting Has Generated a $31.6 Billion Handle
Outside of Nevada, New Jersey does the most action in terms of legal sports betting, and since the entire state legalized that activity in June 2018, the market there has generated a total handle of $31.57 billion, a staggering amount considering there was a pandemic in that period.
That handle equates to $2.2 billion in sportsbook revenue (after all the freebies and giveaways were subtracted) which turned into over $278 million in tax revenue for the state, money presumably reinvested into funding projects that benefit the residents.
Sports betting and esports are the new honey that attracts the tourist bees, so say the Atlantic City experts, and that applies elsewhere in the U.S., as well, as bettors begin to expect to easily and safely place their action from wherever they happen to be.