After Supreme Court Decision, Will Sports Gambling Be Fully Operational By Football Season?

While individual states will still have to decide how and whether to regulate sports gambling, today’s Supreme Court decision means that sports gambling will be coming soon to many locales in America:

Selfishly, I like the sound of “floodgates” because if and when this industry emerges it will mean a lot of advertising money rolling into sports media, which means more and better jobs for all of us.

There is still going to be a lot of red tape to cut through as this winds up being a state-by-state thing as opposed to federally regulated. States including New Jersey, Indiana, and West Virginia seem relatively close to the finish line, while many others at least have bills in motion, according to this nifty Legal Sports Report tracker.

From afar, it feels like the big story to watch will be which states, if any, succumb to the professional sports leagues’ desire for them to pay a so-called “integrity fee,” which essentially means giving the sports a cut of the action.

In honor of this special day, I will set the over/under as the beginning of football season for when we start to see some of these state sportsbooks up and operational.

Update: New Jersey is gonna be ready a lot sooner than that: