Howard Glaser, global head of government affairs with Light & Wonder, the gambling equipment manufacturer, said efforts to expand internet gambling are “dead in every state this year.” “I question the validity of that report,” he said, adding he plans to try again next year to get the bill passed. Jon Ford said his state tried unsuccessfully to pass internet gambling this year, an effort that was at least partly undone by an analytical report from legislative researchers that worried that online gambling would eat into revenue from brick and mortar casinos to an unacceptable extent.
Atlantic City’s nine casinos won nearly $2.8 billion from in-person gamblers, an increase of 9% from the previous year. Internet gambling brought in $1.6 billion in New Jersey in 2022, up more than 21% from a year earlier. Some in the gambling industry, as well as in state houses around the country, continue to fear that authorizing internet gambling will cannibalize revenue that would otherwise go to brick-and-mortar casinos - even though the experience of states like New Jersey has shown that not to be the case. He said in his state, it takes three months of sports betting revenue to match a single month of online casino revenue. Shawn Fluharty, the minority whip of the Werst Virginia House of Delegates, said the disparity is surprising because internet gambling brings in much more money than sports betting does.
