New Jersey was one of the first states to legalize mobile sports betting following the United States Supreme Court’s overturning a federal ban on the pastime in May 2018, trailing only Nevada, which circumvented the ban with a special provision thanks to the robust betting markets of Las Vegas and Reno.
Less than a month after the landmark case, New Jersey state legislators sent a bill to the desk of Governor Phil Murphy, who promptly signed it, paving the way for legal mobile sports betting in the Garden State. Since then, it’s been off to the races as New Jersey began to rake in the revenue from the lucrative industry, even drawing traffic from out-of-state population centers like New York City, where respective state legislators were dragging their feet.
One of the nice things about legalized gambling is that sportsbooks and legislators alike are painfully aware that the pastime had suffered from a bad reputation because of things like problem gambling, as well as the black market bookies that flourished before legalization made it possible to place wagers with reputable outlets. As such, both parties have taken steps to improve the industry’s reputation through community outreach.
Take a look at the state of Maryland, for instance, where the bill legalizing sports wagering provisioned for the State Wagering Application Review Commission, the board which oversees which sportsbooks get a license to operate, to look into ways for minority and female-owned businesses to have a chance to stake their claim among those offering betting lines. Knowing that the industry is male-dominated and made up of well-entrenched, multi-billion dollar brands like BetMGM, DraftKings, and Caesar’s Palace, Maryland lawmakers wanted to make sure that they were setting aside a piece of the pie for those historically left out of the fun.
With that being said, here’s a look at how New Jersey Online Casinos give back in the Garden State.
Tax Revenue Allocation for Community Programs in States with Sportsbooks
Another thing that many states have done is set aside the tax revenue acquired from wagers where the sportsbooks win for programs that pay the money back into the community. In New Jersey, mobile sportsbooks are taxed at a 13 percent rate on their winnings, and those funds are earmarked for ten different funds designed to help aging seniors through things like financial assistance for accessing public transportation or acquiring medical care like pharmaceuticals and hearing aids, as well as assistance for people with developmental or acquired disabilities: the state pats forward the revenue it acquires from the gambling industry, devoting it to communities in need.
Another way that New Jersey and its sportsbooks are giving back deals with empowering women in the business world, whether in gambling or the professional world as a whole.
One sportsbook that has made a name for itself in doing so is FanDuel, whose CEO, Amy Howe, wants to make sure she’s paving the way for women to have rightful representation in the bustling industry.
Howe takes an active role in the Women Nation Fund, which looks to mentor and invest in women trying to make their way in the world of providing live entertainment venues. This is a cause that Howe has a special connection to, as she once served as the Chief Operating Officer of Ticketmaster North America in addition to her work with Live Nation.
Per privateequitylist.com, the Women Nation Fund is “a global, early-stage fund investing in female-founded live music businesses. Its purpose is to provide access to capital for underrepresented female entrepreneurs in Concert Promotions, Events, and Festival space.
As Live Nation continues to strive for gender equity and diversity across our Concert business, we have found that there simply aren’t enough female-founded festivals or female promoters to draw on. The Women NationTM Fund will help address this issue by identifying, funding, and growing the available pool of female-led festivals, events, and promotion companies.”
Another venture that FanDuel has partnered with is the gambling newsletter Gaming Society. Through their partnership, the two brands look to attract more women to the often male-dominated world of sports, sports fandom, and sports media.
Summary
While people of any gender can be a fan of any sport (men aren’t forced to watch male athletes in the NFL, nor are women limited to watching the WNBA), the fact of the matter is that women are unduly kept out of the world of sports because of the lack of attention given to female athletes: starting from the very beginning, young girls are closed out of sports because of the limited focus on role models who look like them.
By making a concerted effort to put out content devoted to women in sports, FanDuel and Gaming Society look to change that.