Sports bars in and around the train stations that bring passengers from New York to Hoboken are alive with new-look customers.
So too are those in Jersey City and Newark, which, like Hoboken, are gateways from Manhattan into New Jersey.
And it’s all because of the Wire Act and the fact that while New Jersey encourages online sports betting, New York doesn’t.
NY has legalized in-person betting in a handful of up-state Casinos. The state’s Governor, Andrew Cuomo, however, has been holding out on online sports betting for over a year now.
The wire act prevents residents of the Big Apple from using their smart phones to make online bets in New Jersey. It’s illegal to bet across state lines – and Geolocation technology helps prevent it from happening.
Meantime the sports bars on the New Jersey shore of the Hudson River are much closer than New York State’s Casinos, so what do they do?
The Big Apple’s punters take a train, bus or even a bicycle ride across the Hudson and bet online in New Jersey territory.
Sportsbooks reps now working in NJ sports bars
Julio Carrasco, general manager of a sports bar near the Hoboken station, has noticed a new type of customer in his bar recently
Some are reps for sports-betting websites, like FanDuel, DraftKings, Play Sugarhouse, 888sport or William Hill. They are there, he told ‘Time’ this week, to promote online NJ sports betting. The others are New York punters, usually single, who come into New Jersey in droves to bet.
“You notice these guys immediately, said Carrasco, whose bar is called Texas Arizona.
“Most are regular; meeting friends. Then, more and more, we are seeing these lone guys specifically here to gamble.”
Sports’ betting in the Garden State has exploded since the PASPA law prohibiting it was abolished in May 2018. More than $4 billion in betting handle was taken in the state last year.
Some 82% of it was brought on online. And in the case of the NJ sports betting market leader FanDuel, 22% via New York residents.
New Yorkers betting in and around NJ train Stations
888sport told Time its biggest wagering markets in New Jersey were Hoboken, Jersey City and Newark.
Much of the betting, says Yaniv Sherman, 888’s US head of commercial development, is being done in or near train stations.
Betts are also being made from Newark’s Liberty International Airport, he added, mostly from bars and restaurants in the terminals.
And this all apart from the thousands of New Yorkers who travel to NJ specifically to place bets.
“On Saturday and Sunday, you see all those locations light up,” Sherman said. “People are coming in to place bets and traveling back to the city.”
It’s no wonder that New Jersey trains, buses and transit stations are now all covered with ads for betting operators such as William Hill, Unibet and MGM Resorts International.
DraftKings has an office in Hoboken, while PointsBet, an Australian import, has it US head office in neighboring Jersey City.
FanDuel offering punters a shuttle service
FanDuel, meanwhile, is offering would-be punters a shuttle service from NYC’s Port Authority bus station to its New Jersey sportsbook at Meadowlands racetrack.
That location is closer New York City’s 8 million residents than any other sportsbook offering in-house and on line wagering. That’s according to researchers Eilers & Krejcik Gaming LLC.
So right now sports betting is looking rosy in New Jersey, but not quite so in New York State.
However, as the old saying goes, one of the few things in life you can be sure of is that nothing ever stays the same. If Cuomo can be persuaded to back a bill allowing online sports betting in New York, things could change drastically.
But I wouldn’t bet on it happening sometime soon.
“If you had to place a bet on New York mobile (betting) right now the favorite would be approval in 2021 and launch at some point in 2022.”
That’s the feeling of James Kilsby, a sports-betting-wise Gambling Compliance analyst.
