There were plenty of games in February, but the one that drew the most attention, and had the most influence, was the Super Bowl. Turns out that states as different as New Jersey and Louisiana saw a decline in handle for the month despite the big game, but an increase in sports betting revenue.
In New Jersey, revenue rose 76.92 percent to $54.6 million while handle slid 14.02 percent to $847.4 million. The Meadowlands, with FanDuel, PointsBet and Superbook, led the market with a 58.7 percent share.
When you factor in all sources for the month, revenue improved 10.43 percent to $412.2 million.
Bally’s turned out to be the king of the mountain in brick-and-mortar revenue, growing 14.27 percent, thanks in part to lucky table game hold. On the other side, Golden Nugget revenues dipped some 13 percent with unlucky table game holds.
Down in the bayou, total sports betting revenue in Louisiana grew 11.27 percent despite handle declining 17.07 percent.
Gaming revenue fell 2.34 percent to $278.3 million in February. Total revenues dropped 5.32 percent, taking Caesars Horseshoe in Lake Charles out of the mix as it shuttered last February on account of hurricane damage.
While New Jersey enjoyed revenue growth, there’s a flip side. Addiction, or the threat of addiction has spurred lawmakers in Trenton to pass a series of measures on March 20 which help dissuade youth from gambling and divert problem gamblers from the criminal justice system and jail time.
Assemblyman Ralph Caputo sponsored bills to develop a gambling treatment diversion court, bar sports betting ads at public colleges and universities, and require school districts to add compulsive gambling risks curriculum in high school.
Caputo chairs the Assembly’s tourism, gaming, and the arts committee, which unanimously advanced the bills.
Caputo said addiction was gambling’s “unintended consequences.”
“We all voted for these things, but at this point, there’s some negative impact of some of the things that we did do, and we’re trying to pull it back a little bit,” he told the New Jersey Monitor.
Runaway advertisements for online gambling and addiction have led to a resolution to exercise restraint.
There’s a “vicious fight for market share. And the public is suffering for it,” Caputo said. “This advertising is way over the top.”
Assemblyman Don Guardian, a former mayor of Atlantic City, voted against the resolution as “internet and sports gaming are in their infancy.”
“The only way that they expand is to advertise, and the more advertising they do, the better they do,” Guardian said. “So I can’t be hypocritical if, as a state, we’re so excited about having internet and sports gaming and collecting 200-plus million dollars in taxes just on those two types of gaming, and then say no, the one way that you can’t promote it is to advertise.”
The National Center on Problem Gambling estimates as many as 6 percent of kids ages 12 to 17 have a gambling problem, while up to 14 percent are at risk of developing an addiction. And the Responsible Gambling Council says young adults act more impulsively and their decision-making hasn’t matured.
That’s why two of his bills center on young people, Caputo said.
“The fact that they’re marketed to a lot of young people, whose addictions have picked up, is a problem,” he said.
The Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey began a pilot lesson plan earlier this month in a West Orange high school.
Dan Trolaro of Morris County told lawmakers he embezzled $2 million from his clients because of his gambling addiction. He spent eight months of a six-year sentence behind bars and another 37 months in an intensive supervision program. He has been in recovery for 13 years.
Trolaro urged lawmakers to pass the diversionary court, modeled after a similar program in Nevada, for lawbreakers who commit crimes to support their gambling addiction. Under that bill, three courts would be created in northern, central, and southern vicinages.
Prison is not a place where gambling addicts can heal, Trolaro said.
“There was gambling every day in prison, and that’s part of the issue,” he said.
But Andrea Johnson of the state Administrative Office of the Courts said the idea works on paper, but the high number of judicial vacancies makes establishing new courts next to impossible, instead diverting to existing programs.
