For this year’s Super Bowl, 45 million more American adults can legally wager on the big game than last year, thanks to a 2018 Supreme Court ruling that has spurred dozens of U.S. states to adopt legalized sports betting.
Since last year’s match-up, 10 more states have legalized adult sports wagering, bringing the total number of states to 33, plus Washington, DC.
Not all states are equal when it comes to legalized sports gambling. Some limit gamblers to physically making their bets from brick and mortar locations like casinos and licensed venues, while others have also approved mobile and online wagers that can happen anywhere within the state’s borders.
Among the 33 states and the District of Columbia that now permit bets from brick and mortar locations, 22 states and the District of Columbia have legalized mobile wagering. Two exceptions, Maryland and Florida, have yet to make their mobile markets operational, and court challenges in Florida threaten to upend the state’s new rules. Louisiana’s mobile market went live just ahead of the big game last month, though nine parishes have maintained an exclusion on sports wagers.
Despite the convenience and ease of mobile and online bets, all states with legal mobile markets require players to place their bets while physically present within the state.
Online wagering companies use geofencing technology, granular location analysis capable of pinpointing a device’s location within five meters, to ensure bettors are within a legal jurisdiction, explains Casey M. Clark, senior vice president for American Gaming Association. The technology can also detect suspicious location behavior such as a user attempting to hide their true location using a virtual private network.
Clark tells Yahoo Finance that Washington DC is one of the more complex geofencing areas.
“District-wide mobile is offered only through the lottery, which the District of Columbia has partnered with, but there are brick and mortar sportsbooks, and in conjunction with that, they get what’s called an exclusivity zone of two blocks where their mobile app will work. Outside of those two blocks, it will not work,” Clark said. Another three states take a not-so-mobile twist on legalized mobile wagering. Arkansas, Mississippi, and Montana permit players to submit wagers from a mobile device, so long as the player is also physically located within a licensed gambling property.
Sports betting is still illegal in California, state host for Sunday’s game between the LA Rams and Cincinnati Bengals. However, in November, California residents will have a chance to vote on a ballot initiative that would permit the state to regulate the industry, along with roulette and dice games within tribal gaming casinos and racetracks.
The new rules are expected to fuel a record-setting $1 billion in legal bets on Sunday’s game, according to PlayUSA. American Gaming Association estimates that overall game bets will reach around $7.6 billion, a 78% jump over last year.
Those skyrocketing wagers are expected to boost revenue for online and mobile gaming companies like Caesars Entertainment (CZR), FanDuel (PDYPYF), DraftKings (DKNG) and BetMGM (MGM).
New entrants into the legalized sports betting market since last year’s Super Bowl include Arizona, Connecticut, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, South Dakota, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. New entrants into the legalized mobile markets include New York state and Louisiana.
In the 2018 Supreme Court case that made it possible for states to legalize sports betting, the court sided with New Jersey and other states by invalidating a federal law called the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. The Act generally made it unlawful for states to authorize sports gambling.
Alexis Keenan is a legal reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow Alexis on Twitter @alexiskweed.
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