Online Sports Betting’s N.Y. Debut: $2.4 Billion in Wagers in 5 Weeks
The New York Times
Since the state legalized online gambling in January, bets have poured in, bringing revenue to tax coffers but worrying addiction specialists.
ALBANY, N.Y. — More than $2 billion in wagers. Nearly $80 million in tax revenue. And a quarter of the entire nation’s mobile-sports wagers on the Super Bowl.
Such are the eye-popping statistics coming out of New York since the state opened online betting in early January and easily surpassed Nevada, the nation’s gambling mecca, and New Jersey, which captured the No. 1 spot in mobile sports betting after legalizing in 2018.
New York’s sudden transformation into the biggest bookmaking market in the nation is part of a stunning post-Covid reversal of fortune for the gaming industry as a whole. It is also a sign of the fast-growing appetite for sports betting in New York and across the country, a development that deeply worries addiction specialists.
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