A hotel room in the casino town of Atlantic City, New Jersey. The TV is preset to the casino commercial channel. Spots from a wide range of online sports betting providers alternate every five minutes. They’ve been legal in the US since 2018 and have been experiencing an onslaught since then that seems to never end. 7.6 billion US dollars were wagered during this year’s Super Bowl alone, the final game of the American football league.
It was the state of New Jersey that made sports betting possible by suing the Supreme Court. The then governor Chris Christie was looking for new sources of income for the cash-strapped state, sued against a law that banned sports betting – and won. Atlantic City, the gambling capital of New Jersey, was prepared for this, says David Rebuck, supervisor of the Betting Control Authority in New Jersey: “We learned a lot from the Europeans about what they do, but we didn’t want to flip the switch because their business model would allow sports bettors to go straight to the people.”
Looked at sports betting models in Europe
Rebuck and his staff looked at sports betting models in Europe, learned from them, but didn’t copy them. Because there was one thing they didn’t like. The sports betting providers were able to market their offers online directly to players – the existing casinos would have gotten nothing. “So in New Jersey, we developed a hybrid model that allows casino and racetrack operators to offer essentially two types of sporting events. One on-premises and one online.”
New Jersey’s solution: the casinos get the betting licenses and online providers are then allowed to offer their sports betting in the state – but they have to be present in some form in a casino. Through a café or a bar, for example. “You may not play or create an account until you are verified.”
Only those who are in the federal state can also gamble
If you want to gamble through betting sites that have their offers in New Jersey, you have to be in the state. One step across the national border with the smartphone and the account is blocked. So Rebuck and his team monitor the location of an online betting account in the state down to the meter. A look at the casinos in Atlantic City shows that this business model works. While only a few tourists gather at the classic slot machines, roulette and poker tables, the sports bars – mostly located directly at the entrance – are well stocked.
Comfortable chairs, cheap drinks, countless screens with soccer, racing, football, rugby and much more. You bet with your smartphone in one hand and your drink in the other. Little is said, especially not into the microphones of German journalists. Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. likes to speak to the German press about this: “Sports and online betting have helped us enormously during the pandemic and New Jersey has very quickly become the number one sports betting company in the country and we are very happy that Atlantic City has a lot to do with it.”
Atlantic City – poverty, crime, drugs, dwindling tourist numbers
Around 22,000 people currently work in the casino industry in Atlantic City. At the beginning of 2000, there were more than twice as many. Atlantic City has been written off many times, but it’s always come back bigger and stronger, says Mayor Small Sr. Looking over his shoulder at the city from his all-glass office, it sounds more like a wish than a fact.
Atlantic City is fighting. Against poverty, crime, drugs, dwindling tourist numbers – the main source of income for the casinos. The luster of the beach promenade along the stormy Atlantic has long since peeled off. The sports betting hype is therefore very convenient.
Two million people in the US are addicted to gambling
Casinos across New Jersey generated around 4.7 billion US dollars in revenue in 2021. 485 million US dollars flowed into the state coffers. Money out of the players’ pockets. Two million people in the US are addicted to gambling. For 20 million, gambling negatively impacts their work or social life, estimates addiction experts from the National Council on Problem Gambling.
David Rebuck is therefore convinced that the next step must be more control by sports betting providers. With the technology behind their online offers, they could monitor exactly who has or is developing a game problem. Rebuck plans to make this one of the requirements for licensing in the near future. However, it is still unclear whether this will happen. And the competition is getting bigger and bigger. Since 2018, 29 US states have legalized online sports betting.