The Latest: Sports betting begins at Harrah’s Atlantic City
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) The Latest on the rapid expansion of sports betting in New Jersey (all times local):
3:30 p.m.
Resorts Casino Hotel and DraftKings have received approval to become the first companies to offer online and mobile sports betting in New Jersey.
The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement gave approval Wednesday afternoon to the casino and its Boston-based online partner to launch an invitation-only version of mobile sports betting, which will undergo several days of testing before becoming fully available. Requests for invitations can be made at draftkings.com.
The companies won a heated race to be first to market with mobile and online sports betting, widely seen as the most promising segment of the nascent sports betting market.
New Jersey regulators are considering mobile applications from several other companies as well. Four casinos and two horse tracks currently offer in-person sports betting.
Harrah's became the fourth casino on Wednesday morning.
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12:10 p.m.
A fourth Atlantic City casino has begun taking sports bets.
Harrah's started accepting bets at 11 a.m. Wednesday, two days after Bally's, its sister property in Atlantic City, began accepting them.
Longtime customer Alan Kallman, of Monroe Township, placed the first bet at Harrah's, putting $25 on the New York Yankees to win the World Series.
The U.S. Supreme Court in May sided with New Jersey and struck down a decades-old federal ban on sports gambling outside of Nevada and three other states.
In addition to Harrah's and Bally's, the Borgata and Ocean Resort casinos in Atlantic City and the Monmouth Park and Meadowlands horse racing tracks now offer sports betting.
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12:05 a.m.
An Atlantic City casino will become the fourth in New Jersey to offer sports betting.
Harrah's casino plans to start taking sports bets at 11 a.m. Wednesday, two days after its sister property, Bally's, did.
So far, the Borgata, Ocean Resort and Bally's are offering sports bets, along with two horse racing tracks, the Meadowlands and Monmouth Park.
No one has yet been approved to offer mobile or online sports betting, although numerous gambling companies have applied to state gambling regulators for permission to do so before football season begins in September.
New Jersey won a U.S. Supreme Court case in May clearing the way for all 50 states to offer sports betting should they choose to do so.