When the topic of gambling cities pops up in casual conversation, most people would instantly first think of gaming meccas like Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Macao, and Monte Carlo. While these spots have remained a somewhat tight hold on the gambling sector globally and in their respective countries, multiple other players have emerged over the past century.
London has long been a rising gambling city, and many predict that The Big Apple will follow a similar fate, especially with the recent online gambling and casino developments New York has experienced in the past three years.
Post-COVID, many US states have turned to legalizing Internet gambling, and online bookies in North America are now thriving, with New York allowing mobile betting in 2021. The UK permitted this practice in 2005, with betting shops becoming legal in Britain in 1961.
Below, we look at supplying a concise analysis of gambling in New York and London, defining wagering entertainment in these bustling metropolitan hubs, and tell you how they stack up against each other.
The History & Current State of New York Gambling
Despite what some people may think, the US is not a super permissive place concerning gambling fun. That has pretty much always been the case since the first settlers came. Yes, western films like to depict drunken men playing cards in saloons for money, but that was not something prevalent throughout the nation. In fact, gambling was primarily illegal everywhere in the US. The first recorded case of someone betting in New York occurred in 1655 at a horse track in Newmarket, today’s Queens. However, it was not until the late 1950s that betting on thoroughbreds became legal in New York state, and in 1966, the state lottery got created.
We mentioned in the intro that New York legalized online sports betting in 2021. But the state is also super famous as the home to the most renowned online gambling bust ever, which occurred in 2011 when the Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York took down the three most famed US-oriented digital poker rooms. Today, racinos, commercial, and native American gaming venues operate within NY, with Resorts World New York City being the only one in NYC. Found near the JFK airport. That said, There have been many rumblings these past few years about new establishments opening up, possibly even in Manhattan.
Something that out-of-towners may not know about the New York betting market is that in-person wagering has been legal since 2013 and that much of the NYC gambling culture revolves around horse race betting and laying down money with illegal bookies. The latter is due to sportsbooks not operating here until a decade ago.
London’s Gambling Culture & Industry
According to the Web, the Big Smoke is home to fifty-four casinos and six hundred and twenty-three betting shops. The history of gambling in England’s capital can get traced back to the rule of King Henry VII (16th century), who banned wagering pastimes on the belief that the activity consumed soldiers’ time, even though he was an avid gambler.
The London gambling landscape then got dominated by card games and horse race wagering in the two centuries that followed. It was not until the late 1820s that casinos started opening up. The first one popped up in Crockfords, which closed its doors in October 2023.
A true wagering revolution transpired in the UK in the early 1960s, when gambling got legalized, and the Clermont Club became the initial licensed London casino. At this time, betting kiosks started to pop up like crazy, and the UK gambling industry began to develop rapidly. In 2005, Tony Blair’s government passed the country’s new Gambling Act, which created the UKGC and regulated Internet casinos and online bookmakers. The UK currently has the most stringently overseen gambling sector in Europe, with most of its top operators headquartered in London.
Without question, London gamblers gravitate most to football betting, with horse racing events like the Grand National generating massive betting handles in the hundreds of billions of pounds.
