According to the American Gaming Association (AGA), it is estimated that Americans will wager an amount of approximately $4.76 billion on Super Bowl 52 that is due to take place between the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles.
The trade body feels that 97 percent of the total wagers, that equals more than $4.6 billion in illegal betting, will take place across the United States due to a failed federal law.
It is expected that an amount of only $138.5 million (or 3 percent) of Super Bowl bets will be wagered legally through licensed sports books in Nevada which is the only state that has been exempted from the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act ban on full-scale single event sports betting.
Geoff Freeman, President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Gaming Association, commented that thanks to the failed federal ban on sports betting, Americans are sending billions of their hard-earned dollars to corner bookies, shady offshore operators and other criminal enterprises.
Freeman went on to say that the big question they are asking is whether 2018 will finally be the year when governments, sporting bodies and the gaming industry work together to put the illegal sports betting market out of business?
The AGA has lobbied extensively over the past year or more in support of the upending of PASPA in order to widen the US sports betting market and better protect consumers and is now awaiting the decision of the US Supreme Court on New Jersey’s challenge to the PASPA.