Regulated sports betting in New York is off to a roaring start with operators reporting a record $1.2 billion worth of wagers placed in just the first 16 days of legal play. That represents a new record for fastest US State to hit the $1 billion mark and validates predictions that New York is destined to be the largest regulated sports betting market in the United States.
Empire State operators launched their operations on January 8 and have been hauling in cash ever since. During the two weeks and two days since launching, NY sportsbooks hauled in more than a billion in wagers and clocked gross gaming revenue of $91.4 million.
Because New York lawmakers are soaking sports betting operators with a massive 51 percent tax, that means that the State of New York just hauled in somewhere close to $46 million in tax revenue during that same period. With numbers like that, it’s easy to see why lawmakers across the US are embracing regulated sports betting as a pretty sweet source of tax revenue.
Caesars Sportsbook led the pack with a handle of $487,360,917 and revenue of $41.8 million. FanDuel and DraftKings followed behind with handles of $360,005,361 and $265,475,441, according to Legal Sports Report.
Predictions that New York would eclipse the action in its red-hot neighbor, the online gambling pioneer state of New Jersey, have proven correct. It’s very like that New York’s first full month of regulated play will easily surpass the monthly handle record of $1.3 billion set by NJ operators in November.
With so much sports betting cash pouring in, NY lawmakers are probably kicking themselves for fightying sports betting for so many years.