Given the decision of the US Supreme Court in late 2018, State authorized gambling in 2019 is said to launch to unprecedented heights. The NFL is ready, are you?
The ban on the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act
The US Supreme Court has given states the green light to legalize betting on some of America’s favorite sports - football, basketball, baseball, etc. The Supreme Court essentially revoked a federal law that outlawed gambling on football, baseball and basketball in the majority of states. With the Supreme Court striking down on this law, states now have the go ahead to legalize sports betting.
The federal act that has been disabled was known as the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act and it was enforced in the 1992, since when it has banned state authorized gambling expect in the case of some exceptional cases. As per this 1992 law, the only state where one may lawfully wager on the results of a single game was Nevada. The Supreme Court decision came after a unanimous vote wherein 6 judges voted to uplift the ban and 3 judges voted to keep the 1992 ban in place.
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Now that state authorized gambling is legal in most states, the sheer amount of revenue the sports gambling industry will raise is said to be in the hundreds of billions every year. As per research, even though outlawed, Americans are said to have spent $150B on sports gambling illegally in the recent past.
The Supreme Court ruling - Who are the winners and who are the losers?
The premise of a gambling enterprise such as a casino boils down to a simple equation wherein there will be more losers than winners so the house always makes money. In contrast, the ruling of the Supreme Court to uplift the 1992 ban on state authorized sports gambling is actually going to result in more winners than losers.
Courtesy of the recent ruling, any state that wants to offer sports betting lawfully will now be able to do so legally. One of the main considerations by the Supreme Court judges while passing this ruling is that despite the prohibition, there was still sports gambling, albeit, illegal and underground. In fact, there is estimated to have been $150B worth of illegal sports gambling happening every year. Just imagine the taxes and revenue states could rope in when there is clearly such a huge demand. Now, states will be able to decide for themselves if they want to offer gambling or not, and whether they want a slice of the huge money pie or not.
One of the winners here has to be New Jersey without a doubt, this state has been at it for 6 years trying to get sports betting legalized and now they finally have what they want. They are expected to be one of the first states to get sports betting enterprises of the ground and start offering sports gambling post the Supreme Court ruling. In their footsteps will be Pennsylvania, Mississippi, West Virginia, and New York, all of whom have already passed state laws to facilitate sports betting or gambling.
The judges that voted in favor of legalization were driven by the facts that not only are states set to make huge amounts of money by the legalization, but the legalization will also mean a safe and regulated market and the demise of the currently existing illegal, underground market.
However, opponents that voted to keep state authorized gambling illegal, noted that legalization could lure youngsters and get them addicted to habit gambling. Furthermore, it could also result in people gambling away their life savings. Not to mention the risk of corruption in professional sports driven by the legalized gambling.
The Judges also made clear that congress could step in and regulate sports gambling if it so wishes. However, that is unlikely to happen and assuming that it will not happen, here are the five big winners of the Supreme Court decision.
• Casino and gambling establishments
• Professional Sports Leagues
• Television Networks and Media Companies
• States like New Jersey
• Online Casinos and Sports betting platforms
In terms of online sports betting platforms and online bookmakers, there are going to be plenty of American services entering the market and offering bets at a click. Olivia King from ND365 was on hand to give us a short description of the games that could be available quite soon.
So who is the loser in all of this? Well the answer is clear - offshore bookmakers that have accepted American players and offer sports betting on American sports are going to lose out big time. Users are going to state recognized gambling sites and the black market services are going to take a huge hit. An example of one such offshore bookmaker is BetDSI based in Costa Rica which is one of the leading sports gambling providers and a shocking 97% of their user activity comes from the United States. There are plenty of other such sites that will be affected too.
The NFL partnering with Caesars Entertainment
In the light of the Supreme Court ruling, the NFL has wasted no time in announcing that they have partnered with Caesars Entertainment as the Official Casino Sponsor of the league.