Sports betting is big business in the United States

With industry interest centred on the New Jersey appeal on sports betting currently before the US Supreme Court (see previous reports), new numbers from the respected gambling consultants H2Capital have attracted attention this week.

The figures exceed the American Gaming Association’s assertion that sports betting handle outside the legality of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act has reached $150 billion, estimating instead that around 97 percent of the total US sports betting handle is in the illegal category, with handle of some $197 billion, leading to untaxed GGR of $10.5 billion being generated.

The H2 figures are also considerably ahead of those published recently by the International Centre for Sport Security – University of Sorbonne Paris, which estimated that as much as 80 percent of global bets are made illegally.

H2 has calculated that illegal US sports betting handle is a staggering 47 times that of legal handle under current legislation.