The US gambling business has always been traditionally associated with the state of Nevada and luxurious Las Vegas, home to many of the greatest casinos with the biggest jackpots in history. But sports betting has remained in the shadows for 26 years. However, everything changed very quickly and now there is a real boom in sports betting in the United States. Read more about this phenomenon and what preceded it in this Telecomasia.net article.
Betting during the ban
The law that banned betting was passed in 1992. It was popularly called the Bradley Act because the idea for it came from New Jersey Congressman Bill Bradley, who had played basketball professionally in his youth. Of course, the law was passed with the best of intentions as politicians wanted to protect athletes from match-fixing.
However, during the ban on betting in Delaware, Oregon and Montana, sports lotteries were very popular, which were a kind of hybrid of lottery and betting.
It is also interesting that in Nevada, the capital of gambling, sports betting was accepted quite legally throughout the 26 years of the ban.
Cancellation of the ban on betting
In May 2018, the Bradley Act was not only repealed but also declared unconstitutional, according to the decision of the US Supreme Court. The fact is that the American legal system assumes that every state has the right to self-determination, and PASPA violated it.
Donald Trump influenced the repeal of the law. Even before becoming president of the United States, he stated that bets in the United States should be legalized.
Several states were so well prepared to lift the sports betting ban that they legalized them almost immediately after the court’s decision. We are talking about Mississippi and West Virginia. As of this writing, betting is allowed in 19 states.
Sports Betting Boom
Nowadays betting in the USA is extremely popular. In the first year and a half since the ban on bookmaking was lifted, Americans managed to place bets worth $13.9 billion. And this is only official data. For some states, there is no exact information yet, so this figure is actually even higher. Over the same year and a half, bookmakers replenished the state treasury by almost $124 million through taxes.
At the same time, online bets bring most of the profit to bookmakers. For example, in New Jersey, according to local companies, about 84% of bets were placed online.
Now bookmakers in the United States are doing everything to attract new customers through advertising and lucrative offers. Judging by the volume of bets, they do it very well. According to forecasts, the popularity of betting in the United States will only grow in the coming years, especially given the fact that more and more states will allow this activity on their territory.