This year has, so far, been tough for many industries and businesses worldwide. The COVID 19 pandemic has greatly impacted many businesses. Some businesses only had to temporarily close, while many of them have closed for good.

The loss of many businesses and jobs impacted many economies and governments are looking for ways to gain more revenue as the pandemic continues. Some countries and states in the US are now seeking alternatives, but it is noticeable that some governments are seeking the help of the gambling sector to gain more revenues.

Since May, major sports events like the German Bundesliga and the EPL made a comeback. This made gambling activities, particularly sports betting, rise again. In the next few months, other sports leagues are also starting to return like the IPL and the next season of the EPL this September. Many sports fans will surely make use of an EPL or IPL cricket betting app once these events are back.

The rise of betting activities can be good for the economy. Sports betting has the potential of bringing in great revenues in states in the US and even other countries. In New Jersey, sports betting has always been a great source of gambling revenues. Mobile sports betting, in particular, makes up 80 to 90 percent of the sports betting handle in the state each month.

In the UK, the United Kingdom Gambling Commission has reported that sports betting is slowly recovering now that sports events are back on. This means that more people are now spending money on bets, and of course, this equates to more tax revenues.

Even Russia appears to be turning towards the direction of legalizing sports betting in the country. Recently, the Russian State Duma has approved the legislation that imposes a tax on bets placed on overseas events.

The new rules will pose limits on the types of sports events that the locals could wager on. It appears that they want the locals to focus on local sports events and professional sports leagues. The law requires operators that accept bets on non-Russian sports to pay contributions to Russian sports federations. The amount will be at least 5 percent of the GGR every three months.

Aside from that, all licensees will also be required to have a RUB500 million bank guarantee and RUB1 billion of assets in place. This is understandable because this could help Russia’s economy. If people wager on international sports with betting sites outside the country, Russia won’t benefit from this.

In the United States, Massachusetts is now pushing to legalize sports betting within its territory. Governor Charlie Baker spoke about this and said that he agrees that legalized sports betting could generate revenue for the state government as it deals with the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic.

Baker said, “We wanted to give Massachusetts the ability to have people play here rather than playing elsewhere. And I believe that, in addition to sort of the cross-border competition issues that would be addressed by doing something here in Massachusetts, it would certainly generate revenue and it would be something that a lot of people would be interested in here at home as opposed to doing across the border. We’d like to see that happen.”

David Friedman, the senior vice president of legal and government affairs of the MLB’s Red Sox also spoke about how sports betting would help sports teams, casino operators, and other companies that are greatly affected by the pandemic.

Friedman said, “Four months into this pandemic, mobile sports betting takes on a new urgency for the leagues and teams. As I said, our revenues have fallen off a cliff, and so the direct financial impact of revenues for sports betting for teams may be relatively modest. We’re not going to be running sportsbooks ourselves, but today every single dollar of advertising and sponsorship revenue is extremely important to us.”

The legislation of sports betting in the US isn’t exactly new anymore. Currently, the US already has over 20 states with legal sports betting. States like New Jersey, Delaware, New York, and Illinois now have regulated sports betting.

You can also tell that these states see the benefit of legalizing sports betting. Like for the state of Colorado. Despite the pandemic, this state ensured that local sports betting operations are launched in May.

The thing about legalizing sports betting not just in the US but in other countries is that it could help lessen or minimize frauds and crimes that are related to Gambling. If this is the case, people will be placing their bets locally and the local government will be the one to benefit from the bets that their locals make.