How New Jersey Became One of America’s Most Powerful Sports Betting States

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For a long time, Nevada was the undisputed king of sports betting in America. In fact, for a while, it was the only place in the States where you could legally place a bet. But then, in 2011, New Jersey citizens decided they wanted to bet too - and the state government ran with it. 15 years later and NJ sports betting has made over $5 billion in revenue for operators and just shy of $900 million in tax for the state. 

That makes NJ the second biggest sports betting market in the nation today, behind only neighboring New York. And NY only took the top spot from New Jersey in 2025. But not only is it one of the biggest markets, but it was also a pioneer in opening up the national market that is now worth some $17 billion a year. This is the story of how New Jersey helped reshape sports betting in the United States.

PASPA, Betting Bans and Atlantic City Casinos

The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act was passed in 1992. This essentially made sports betting illegal across the US, with the exception of Nevada and sports lotteries in Montana, Oregon and Delaware.

The act gave one year for states with casino gaming to pass sports betting laws. Which was specifically aimed at New Jersey and its then-thriving Atlantic City casinos. But, at the time, sports betting was a much more niche and far less profitable activity and the political will for expanding it was low. So the exemption closed in 1993 without New Jersey taking up the chance.

However, in the years following, Atlantic City casinos slowly began to decline in revenues. For many reasons, including but not limited to competition from tribal casinos in neighboring states, and the failure to diversify away from gambling after the 2008 financial crisis.

That meant, by the 2010s, the state was looking for new ways to bring in revenue. While the state had a monopoly on East Coast gambling for decades, other states and tribes copied the playbook. At the time, sports betting was not yet available at casinos in neighboring states like Pennsylvania or Connecticut.

No one predicted the multi-billion-dollar juggernaut business it would become, but it was seen as a new way of attracting business back to a declining Atlantic City.

NJ Voters Decide - Seven Years Later, PASPA is Overturned

So, in 2011, New Jersey politicians put it to the public. Sports betting, or no? The public resoundingly said yes.

In 2012, the state passed the Sports Wagering Act under Governor Chris Christie. However, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which backed PASPA, immediately sued New Jersey and Christie to prevent the market launch.

The resulting series of court cases, after much back and forth and a change of New Jersey Governor, would only finish in 2018. During those six years, NJ's legal representatives decided to argue that federal intervention in state laws on this matter was unconstitutional. This was the angle that worked.

Under new Governor Phil Murphy, New Jersey won the case in the Supreme Court and PASPA was repealed. The Supreme Court ruling was in May 2018 and by June 2018 Atlantic City had retail sportsbooks for the first time. By August, online betting was launched.

The launch of mobile betting proved even more important than retail sportsbooks inside casinos. Instead of traveling to Atlantic City, users could place wagers directly from their phones anywhere within state lines. That convenience fundamentally changed how Americans interacted with sports betting and rapidly accelerated user adoption.

New Jersey is the First Mover in a Sports Betting Boom

So that was how, in late 2018, New Jersey became the first US state with a regulated and fully open sports betting market. But how did it get to become one of the biggest and most influential?

By being the first US mover in the online and mobile betting space, New Jersey captured national media and betting operators' attention. This was the chance to prove a model already taking shape elsewhere in the world, such as in Europe and Australia, could work in the US.

Major operators such as DraftKings and FanDuel rapidly expanded in New Jersey during this period, helping transform mobile sportsbooks into mainstream consumer products rather than niche gambling services.

Why Mobile Betting Made NJ Powerful

Mobile betting was the real engine behind New Jersey’s rise. Atlantic City gave the state a casino foundation, but smartphones gave the market scale. A bettor no longer had to visit a retail sportsbook, plan a casino trip or wait until game day in Atlantic City. As long as they were physically inside New Jersey, they could open an app, compare lines and place a wager within minutes.

That changed the economics of sports betting. Operators could compete on app design, promotions, same-game parlays, live betting, payment speed and loyalty features. New Jersey became a testing ground for the mobile sportsbook model that later spread across much of the country.

And boy did it work. Within one year, New Jersey sportsbooks were making more revenue than the long-established operations in Nevada.

This rapid expansion of the industry created an ecosystem of comparison platforms, guides and sportsbook reviews - as shown on this website. Platforms like Covers.com help NJ's bettors navigate an increasingly crowded market. Customers can compare everything from odds and promotions to payment speed, mobile app quality and responsible gambling tools before choosing where to place bets.

This huge amount of competition shows how lucrative the market is. Even with the low margins on sports betting - revenue is often less than 10% of the total wagered - Americans embraced it so wholeheartedly that even smaller operations can still make significant sums.

At the same time, the rapid expansion of online betting has increased scrutiny around responsible gambling practices in New Jersey and elsewhere. Critics argue that the convenience of mobile wagering and aggressive promotional campaigns may contribute to problem gambling risks, particularly among younger users and highly active bettors. To that end regulators in NJ have increasingly focused on consumer protections, advertising standards and self-exclusion programs as the market matures.

That tension is now part of New Jersey’s legacy too. The state proved that online sports betting could generate major revenue, but it also showed how quickly gambling can move from casinos into everyday digital life. As the market matured, the conversation shifted from legalization alone to questions about advertising volume, deposit limits, self-exclusion tools, data monitoring and how operators identify risky behavior before it becomes severe.

Today's Massive Figures - and How it Changed America

From late 2019 to early 2020, two things hit many of America's State governments at the same time - just how much people seemed to love sports betting in New Jersey, and the COVID pandemic.

This combination of states needing money during shutdowns, and sports betting, particularly online, becoming an increasingly popular activity and potential source of tax revenues, spurred dozens of states into action. Over the following two years, dozens of states followed New Jersey's lead and launched their own sports betting markets.

Now, sports betting is legal across 39 of the 50 states. In just six short years since New Jersey opened the floodgates. The state's Division of Gaming Enforcement and Casino Control Commission model would become influential in the way other states chose to govern their sports betting.

Although it is no longer the very biggest market, NJ is an example for states that legalized more recently. The Garden State remains the most mature market in the US, and it can show other states what to expect once they have been in the sports betting game for coming on a decade.

This includes demonstrating how regulation deals with new technologies, how operators adapt to a near-saturated market where customer acquisition and growth are no longer a priority, and even how regulators and the public view problem gambling or gambling advertising concerns.

New Jersey’s role in the expansion of legal sports betting extends far beyond its own borders. The state helped overturn PASPA, proved that online wagering could operate at scale, and showed other states both the revenue opportunity and the regulatory challenges that come with a mobile-first betting market. Even as newer markets grow larger, New Jersey remains one of the clearest examples of how legislation, technology, consumer demand and regulation combined to permanently reshape American sports betting.

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