New Jersey surpassed Nevada in sports betting handle for the first time.
For the first time more money was bet at New Jersey sportsbooks than at Nevada books in a month – but the momentum may be stopped by a potential New Jersey state government shutdown.
In May, New Jersey books took $318.9 million in bets, beating Nevada books’ $317.4 million in wagers during the month, according to gaming regulators in the two states.
The celebration in the Garden State may be short-lived, however: Trenton lawmakers and Gov. Phil Murphy are at the brink of a government shutdown that could impact racetracks, sportsbooks and casinos.
Illinois Gov. Jay Pritzer is expected to sign the state’s sports betting legalization bill into law today.
Source: Gov. Pritzker plans to sign SB690 in Springfield this Friday, officially bringing legalized sports betting to Illinois. 26 days after the bill passed both chambers.
— Joe Ostrowski (@JoeO670) June 26, 2019
Sports betting pro and Jeopardy! champion James Holzhauer finished outside of the money in his World Series of Poker debut.
Holzhauer finished in 454th place among more than 1,800 entrants in a No-Limit Hold’em event, spokesman Seth Palansky said. Buy-in was $1,500 and Holzhauer didn’t reach the top 281 finishers who will win shares of some $2.5 million in prize money.
Holzhauer moved to his second poker event of the day, to play with Poker Hall of Famer Mike Sexton in a $1,000 buy-in Tag-Team No-Limit Hold’em tournament. Sexton began play for both of them.
Holzhauer told tournament officials he plans to donate half of any winnings to a Las Vegas nonprofit for homeless, displaced and disadvantaged high school students called Project 150.
Holzhauer played online poker semi-professionally in the early 2000s, but makes a living now with sports betting.
William Hill will donate $50,000 of its settlement from FanDuel to creative writing program in New Jersey. William Hill sued FanDuel for plagiarizing its sports betting guide.
On Thursday, William Hill will donate $50,000 to Rutgers University-Newark’s master of fine arts program in creative writing.
William Hill filed a copyright infringement suit in October in federal court.
It produced its guide last June when it began offering sports betting at Monmouth Park Racetrack.
FanDuel circulated a virtually identical guide at the Meadowlands Racetrack a month later, the lawsuit claimed.
Court documents outlined instances of entire blocks of text from the William Hill guide appearing verbatim in the FanDuel version, although in a different typeface.
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