New Jersey’s fast-growing online sportsbook market is set to get some stiff competition very soon from Pennsylvania, one of the first states to follow the Garden State’s lead and make sports betting legal following the US Supreme Court’s decision to dump the PASPA law that for more than two decades had made sports betting illegal in 46 US Sates.
The 7-2 decision of the US Supreme Court judges was that PSPA was unconstitutional.
A Pennsylvania Casino, Sugarhouse, already runs one of New Jersey’s biggest online sportsbooks, and now with a host of others, it will also open one in Pennsylvania.
Another of the New Jersey sportsbooks joining Sugarhouse in Pen state will be PlayMGM which owns Atlantic City’s Borgata and the Golden Nugget Casinos.
They have applied for five of the 11 online licenses still available.
Harrah’s Philadelphia, owned by gambling juggernaut Caesars Entertainment which already owns the Caesars and 888sport sportsbooks in NJ, has also applied for and been given a license to operate in Pennsylvania.
And there are almost certain to be plenty more because, as David Schwartz, the director of the University of Las Vegas Nevada’s Center for Gaming Research, said this week, it makes good sense for gambling companies to operate on both sides of the border.
“Regional diversification is a sound strategy, particularly in the online arena,” he said.
“In this market, convenience is a major factor, so the ability to gamble at home rather than traveling across state lines is a major factor. In that case, licensure in multiple jurisdictions makes a great deal of sense.”
That is especially true in the case of online sports betting, which in New Jersey is restricted to players within the state lines and picked up by Geo-tracking if they are not. The very same restrictions will apply to Pennsylvania.
Sports betting is taking off in New Jersey since it began on the ground in mid-June and online in early September.
Some 336 million dollars worth of sports bets have been placed and Pennsylvania is sitting up and licking its lips.
Apart from Sugarhouse, PlayMGM and Harrah’s, Pennsylvania’s gambling authorities are known to have also approved sports betting licenses for Rivers, Hollywood and Parx who will partner the Philadelphia Turf Club, where they will have a betting lounge.
Meanwhile with plenty going on behind the scenes in the sportsbook industry don’t be too surprised if Sugarhouse isn’t the first gaming house to launch a Pennsylvania sportsbook – and this within the next month or so.