New Jersey Is First State to Take $1 Billion in Bets in Single Month

New Jersey has become the first state to surpass $1 billion in sports bets in a month, the state's Division of Gaming Enforcement reported on Monday.

In September, $1.01 billion was bet on sports in the state, 92% of which was done outside of a physical sportsbook.

New Jersey started taking bets in June 2018, a month after its case against the Supreme Court was heard and the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 was rendered null.

In its first full month — July 2018 — the state pulled in $40 million in handle.

Last month, thanks to more than 20 mobile sportsbooks, the state saw an average of nearly $34 million being bet every day.

As Nevada suffered from lack of an in-person crowd due to COVID-19 and required in-person registration, New Jersey leapt to the top. The Garden State also benefited by New York dragging its feet. New York still doesn't have mobile sports betting, and a non-trivial amount of New Jersey's handle comes from New Yorkers crossing state lines.

For New Jersey, it was just a matter of time to top $1 billion. Last December, the state brought in $996.3 million in bets. Buoyed by that month, the state finished last year with $6 billion in bets, easily surpassing the $5.4 billion record set by Nevada the year before.

New Jersey broke the $500 million a month mark in Nov. 2019. The state then surpassed each $100 million milestone in consecutive months — the $600, $700, $800 and $900 million mark fell from August to November of 2020, respectively.

With three months of reporting left and $7.14 billion in handle taken in in 2021, New Jersey has a shot to also be the first state to hit $10 billion in bets in a single year.