New Jersey Outshined Nevada In Sports Betting Handle, Revenue, And Taxes

• Since PASPA was repealed, over $9 billion has been wagered at legal, state-licensed sportsbooks.
• Nevada has seen New Jersey take in more revenue in three of the first twelve months of post-PASPA sports betting.
• Every state (except New Jersey and Pennsylvania) posted their lowest betting handle numbers in May for 2019.

LAS VEGAS – The Nevada Gaming Control Board released their monthly report detailing legal sports betting in Nevada for the month of May.

In the report, the board noted that $317.8 million was wagered during the month. The sportsbooks were able to hold $11.2 million of that or 3.55% – well below the year-to-date hold percentage of 5.27%.

The majority of the action came from baseball, as this sport was the highest wagered on and highest grossing for the month.

Baseball bettors risked $182.8 million in May, or 57.5% of the total handle, while also bringing in 68.8% of all revenue, or $7.8 million.

Basketball action came in only second to baseball bettors. The 5.14% sportsbook win percentage allowed the books to hold $4.5 million of the $87.8 million entered into the system.

The combined revenue brought in from all sports action allowed the state of Nevada to receive $760,523 in taxes for the month. Since the beginning of the year, Nevada books have contributed $7.8 million to the state.

However, the biggest news for the month stems from a comparison between the two largest sports betting districts. For the first time since the repeal of PASPA, New Jersey totaled more in total handle, sportsbook revenue, and tax contributions than Nevada.

New Jersey outshined Nevada by $1.6 million in the handle, $4.3 million in revenue, and $1.2 million in tax contributions.

New Jersey has also outpaced Nevada in total book revenue for Q2 of 2019 – $36.7 million (NJ) compared to $32.9 million (NV) – and earned more monthly revenue three times since their June 2018 launch. Additionally, New Jersey has contributed more to their government in seven of the first twelve months of operation but this has more to do with New Jersey’s higher tax rate than anything.

But the real story comes when looking at the betting handle. Since November of last year, New Jersey has surpassed $315 million in total wagers every month. Each month was relatively similar, never straying more than $50 million away from the $337.2 million 7-month average.

In that same time span, Nevada averaged $477.3 million per month, but their highest month almost reached the $600 million mark. Their large drop off started in April when they fell from that March high to April’s $328 million followed by May’s $317 million.

Across the board, May was the slowest month in terms of betting handle for nearly every state so it is no surprise to see Nevada drop off. The shock does come from New Jersey sports betting being able to bring in more all around, though.

Since PASPA was repealed, May accumulated for the lowest total handle across the seven legal sports betting states (NM does not report their numbers) since August 2018 – when only Nevada, Delaware, New Jersey, and Mississippi were operating books.

Will this be a trend moving forward, or did Nevada just have a rough month? Only time will tell but one thing is for sure – the legal sports betting industry is as healthy as it has ever been.

News tags: Delaware | Las Vegas | Mississippi | Nevada | Nevada Gaming Control Board | Nevada Revenue | New Jersey | PASPA | Pennsylvania