This past May saw a seismic shifting event in the world of sports gambling when the United States Supreme Court declared the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) unconstitutional.
Since this landmark ruling, seven states have made sports betting legal: Nevada, Delaware, New Jersey, Mississippi, West Virginia New Mexico and Pennsylvania (in that order). Rhode Island is next, as their launch of legalized sports wagering was delayed until November.
The keystone state will make for an especially interesting case study because of the presence of Philadelphia within its borders.
No other state with legal sports gaming contains a city even remotely close in size to the massive metropolis that is Philadelphia, the nation’s fifth most populous city. The Pennsylvania online betting industry faces a set of opportunities as well as some challenges that you just don’t have in other states with legal sports wagering. That’s because a large metropolis means an abundance of professional sports teams and additional entertainment and cultural options that you don’t have in smaller markets.
It’s going to be up to the casinos to make sure they have a business plan that’s cooperative and complementary, rather than directly competitive, with Philly’s already long established leisure options. It is expected that wagering on college and NFL football should provide a boost in the hundreds of millions to the state’s economy.There are many reasons for bullish expectations, but the first lies just across the river from Philly in Jersey.
September saw New Jersey sports betting register gross revenues that almost tripled August’s figures. The number of sports wagers in the garden state also climbed an eye-popping 92.3 percent. Looking at their neighbors to the east for role modeling is nothing new to the Pennsylvania casino industry. As far back as the ’80s, Atlantic City served as a model that other states in the region wished to imitate.
With Rhode Island coming into the fold next, you’ll now have three states in the mid-Atlantic to New England region with legal sports betting. Eventually, over time you could see the eastern seaboard potentially emerge as a gaming mecca in the vein of Las Vegas.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
He also contributes sociopolitical essays to Lineups.com and Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.