New York gamblers are crossing to New Jersey to place bets

By: Gregory B.

Going mobile appears to be a sure bet for local wagering — and that includes New Yorkers looking for a little action.

In January, mobile sports betting in New Jersey outpaced land-based betting by about 4-1, according to New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement numbers.

“The vast majority of our bets in New Jersey are mobile,” said James Chisholm, a DraftKings spokesman. “We are a mobile-first company there and in other places.”

In New York, sports betting isn’t legal yet. As a result, Chisholm said, New York bettors download all the DraftKings information to wager, and then go to a border town like Fort Lee and bet.

Others, he added, use illegal operations — but possibly not for much longer. New York state, Chisholm said, is well aware of the lost tax revenue from sports betting.

As long as GPS identifies the bettors as being physically in Jersey, they are allowed to place their bets.

DraftKings, in a report, said 90 percent of gambling activity is coming through its sportsbook app. It is averaging 53,000 bets per day, beating company projections by 300 percent.

Betting on games is a large part of this growing market. Legal sports betting generated some $270 million in the United States in 2017. Still, states have a long way to go. Revenue generated by illegal operators is estimated at $3 billion a year, according to Eilers & Krejcik Gaming research.

Using mobile platforms, Eilers & Krejcik added, is critical to cutting into the illegal market. In its recent survey, 71 percent of bettors said they would not move their bets to a legal market if restricted to only a land-based operation.

In January, the New York State Gaming Commission approved sports betting regulations that will allow four casinos to build sports wagering books that become effective this spring.

A bill is also pending in the state legislature that would create a task force to study mobile sports betting.