By Skip Charles in Vegas
On Monday, May 14, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court released its landmark ruling, striking down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 and jump-starting a three-year betting boom.
Within a month of the ruling, Delaware and New Jersey launched full-scale sports betting markets. Three years later, legal sportsbooks are operating in 21 states and the District of Columbia. Big states such as California, Texas and Florida aren’t on board yet, but they’re looking at it closely. It won’t be long before more than half the U.S. has regulated sports betting.
In the first three months of 2021, sports betting generated $961.1 million in revenue, according to the American Gaming Association. That’s $50 million more than U.S. sportsbooks produced in all of 2019.
In 2017, the year prior to the Supreme Court decision, Nevada sportsbooks — the only fully legal options in the U.S. at the time — earned a net $248 million.
