New York Residents Flock to New Jersey for Legal Sports Betting

Since New Jersey’s first sportsbooks opened in August 2018, residents of the Big Apple have been making the short trip across the Hudson by car, ferry, PATH subway, bus or shuttle (in short, anyway they can) in droves to place a legal sports bet. Some even just ride a bicycle halfway across the George Washington Bridge, log-on to legal New Jersey sportsbook using a geo-location service to recognize the bettor is within state lines and place their wagers accordingly.

With the New York State Legislature not planning to look at the issue once again until the beginning of the 2019 legislative session in January, the state’s residents have no other option but to make the quick trip across the border to bet on the Knicks, Nets, Jets or Giants in the meantime.

New Yorkers and residents of the Garden State fanatic sports fans

The region around New York and New Jersey is full of fanatic sports fans for whom following their favorite team is performed with semi-religious fervor. There are many great professional and college teams that represent their respective regions with pride and passion. Their loyal fan bases will support their teams any way that they possibly can, including placing wagers on their beloved teams, even if it means a short trip to the Garden State.

With legal betting beginning to take over and a more attractive option than illegal sports betting in New Jersey and surrounding states, many are beginning to look at legal sports wagering options than ever before. It’s as if the pre-May 2018 world of Federal prohibition on sports betting almost never existed. Things are changing and evolving rapidly and many New Yorkers cross the border into New Jersey regularly to place their sports bets as a part of their daily routine. While they frequently have to pay a toll, ferry or PATH subway ticket to get there, they are simply writing it off as a price of doing business and allow for it in the daily schedule.

Sports Betting Widely Advertised in New York City

Sports betting is advertised heavily in New York City (and in particular in Manhattan), even though it’s not yet legal there. There are advertisements on billboards, over the radio and at train stations, subway stations and the Port Authority Bus Terminal. It is no small wonder that there are so many sports betting ads at the major transport hubs and nodes into New Jersey.

Others who live close enough may even go for a walk and place their sports wagers through one of the mobile sports betting apps available in New Jersey. Once a person is physically in New Jersey, it is legal to place a bet on sports. Sportsbooks found at the majority of the casinos in Atlantic City, as well as the racetracks across the Garden State.

A Billboard on the New Jersey side of the Lincoln Tunnel linking New York and New Jersey

According to FanDuel, 9% of their sportsbook clients live in New York, while Draft Kings estimates that about 20% of their clients come from other states to New Jersey in order to place their wagers.

One Brooklyn resident says goes from Brooklyn to Manhattan every Sunday morning and then gets aboard a train to New Jersey. Once arrived, he says; “I’ll get off the train and stand right in the station, a few steps from where I got off, take out my phone, do my bets right there, and go back home.”