New Jersey Bookies Look for Bountiful Year Due to Offshore Exit
Several of the online sportsbooks operating offshore have departed the New Jersey market after that state began licensing its own business. This has left many a sports bettor with no place to play online and local bookies in the Garden State are hoping to capitalize. Many have turned to offshore Pay Per Heads.
A Pay Per Head handles all the customer service, website operations, tech support and management of clients bets for the bookie, all at affordable pricing that starts around $10 per head a week.
Bookies are easy to find in any town in New Jersey, mostly in sports bars, pool halls and strip clubs. The demand to wager on sports in the Garden State is quite high.
Those residing in the northern portion of the state will tend to back the Giants and Jets in the NFL, Yankees and Mets in the MLB and Devils in the NHL. Basketball used to be much more popular with Seton Hall’s past performance but neither it or Rutgers have enjoy much success in recent years. The state’s one time NBA team, the Nets, have since moved to Brooklyn.
In the southern part of the state, there tends to be more support for Philadelphia based teams such as the Eagles and Phillies.
Those living in the northern part of the state, whether a bookie or sports bettor, have an exceptional chance of meeting up due to the close proximity of towns, many of which have significant populations.
Those in the southern part of the state will not have the same luxury as towns tend to be more spread out while shore towns typically die out during the off season (i.e. when the NFL and College Football are being played).
Due to the rather large population of bookies operating from the state and their occasional ties to organized crime families, busts of sports betting operations are quite common. Typically there are one to two big takedowns a year. This might actually work towards the corner bookie’s benefit as he or she may feel that law enforcement has their hands full.
Also true is that both sports betting and booking wagers is considered a misdemeanor in the state. Most gambling busts, in fact, involve other charges such as money laundering and racketeering.
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
