Nearly $184 million was bet on sports in September at New Jersey sportsbooks, doubling the state's year-to-date betting handle in the first month of the football regular season.
Football accounted for $88.6 million of the amount wagered in September, with $104.9 million of all bets being placed online, according to revenue numbers released Friday by New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement. New Jersey sportsbooks won a net $24.0 million overall in September, including $9.4 million coming from football.
In comparison to the $184 million wagered in September at New Jersey books, approximately $450 million on average has been bet at Nevada sportsbooks each September over the past five years.
Nevada revenue numbers for September will be released later this month.
New Jersey began allowing sports betting in early June and has taken $336.6 million in wagers in the past four months, with a net win of $26 million. The state has generated $4.1 million in tax revenue in the first four months.
Six Atlantic City casinos and two racetracks, Monmouth Park and the Meadowlands, now offer sports betting. The sportsbooks run by DraftKings, through Resorts Casino, and FanDuel at the Meadowlands racetrack topped all operators in handle and revenue in September.
FanDuel said, across all its platforms, it took $175 million in sports bets, daily fantasy sports entry fees, horse racing and its online casino in September in New Jersey.
New Jersey is one of four states, along with Delaware, Mississippi and West Virginia, that has opened sportsbooks since the U.S. Supreme Court in May struck down the federal prohibition on state-sponsored sports betting.
New Mexico is poised to join the sports betting mix next week, when the Santa Ana Star Casino, a tribal casino on The Pueblo of Santa Ana, opens its sportsbook on Tuesday.
Bets on games and events involving New Mexico and New Mexico State will be prohibited, according to the casino, which has partnered with Nevada sports betting provider USBookmaking to manage its sportsbook.
"We're going to be the first new book to open west of the Mississippi," said Vic Salerno, president of USBookmaking and a longtime Nevada bookmaker. "It should be exciting."
With no specific state laws specifically addressing sports betting, a spokesman for the New Mexico attorney general's office said in a statement it "will closely monitor New Mexico's tribal gaming compacts and work with the legislature for proper statutory and regulatory oversight to require responsible gaming and enhanced integrity to create an even playing field for all."
Pennsylvania and Rhode Island are expected to open sportsbooks in the coming months, and gaming industry analysts project that more than half of U.S. states will be offering legal sports betting by 2023.