By Kevin Judge | August 12, 2018
Now that New Jersey has legalized sports betting, what will happen to your friendly neighborhood bookie? The so called “numbers rackets”, illegal lotteries , was once a cash cow for organized crime but were driven out of business by State lotteries. As government blessed sportsbook spreads across the land, will illegal bookmaking bite the dust?
I haven’t used such services myself, but I recently spoke to an aquantance who is an avid sports gambler and a user of extralegal services. As he likes to put it, I know a guy who knows a guy. He is confident that “his guy” will survive and may even prosper in the new era. “He has a big advantage because he can supply credit and doesn’t have to deal with a maze of regulations like legit businesses do, not to mention the customer does not have to report to the IRS” he said.
“My guy is backed by a “Tony Soprano” and a Tony does not just walk away from a good business like this” he added.
Makes sense, but if you don’t pay back your credit cards only your credit report will be hurt! The pain of defaulting on a bookie could be very literal.
My friend figures they will cater to their best customers, the big money, in a way that state sanctioned bookmakers will not be able to match. They may lose some of the small fry business, but it might help them in the long run by expanding the market. Sports betting, legal or otherwise is already a billion dollar business and it is only going to get bigger
Illegal sports betting could go the way of the numbers racket and the dodo bird, but don’t bet on it!