ward. Nothing has worked, thanks to the efforts of the aptly named
GeoComply, which is licensed by the New Jersey Division of Gam-
ing Enforcement to ensure all bettors comply with the state’s geo-
graphical requirements. The company claims that in many cases it
can locate users to within a few meters. Anecdotally, I can confirm.
FanDuel, the most popular betting app in the state, pinged me while
I was in the dead center of the Lincoln Tunnel, a hundred feet un-
derwater and halfway between New York City and Weehawken.
Which is why New Yorkers are flooding west. But not too far
west—44 percent of all mobile bets in New Jersey are made within
two miles of the state border, according to GeoComply, with 80 per-
cent made within ten miles. At a public hearing in May, FanDuel’s
COO said that as much as 25 percent of its business comes from
New Yorkers crossing the border. For those carpetbagging gamblers
without a car, Hoboken Terminal—which couldn’t be closer to the
state border without falling into the Hudson River—is a mecca.
As it changes them, so they change it: The gamblers step onto
the platform and transform it into a literally underground betting
parlor. The Borgata it isn’t. But convenience beats out coddling.
Here, you won’t find leather seats at ritzy bars, nor giant televi-
sion screens and waitresses showing too much skin. Here, in this
dusky underworld, the house is open all day and all night, and it’s
less than twenty minutes from midtown Manhattan. Here, you can
get cell service without leaving the turnstile, so the whole trip costs
the price of a one-way fare. “I really don’t want to spend more than
maybe, like, an hour in New Jersey,” says Harrison, twenty-seven,
from Queens, one of the many carpetbagging gamblers I spoke to
over the opening weekend of the NFL’s 2019 season.
Some land here by trial and error. “I didn’t know where you could
pick up signal, so I just took the train to Jersey City,” says Cooper,
forty, who lives in Brooklyn. Rookie mistake. “So I got out of the sta-
tion and still couldn’t get signal. I was literally walking around on a
Saturday night in Jersey City looking for signal.” He kept searching,
because what was once off-limits by law is now welcome. “I spent“I really don’t want
to spend more than
maybe, like, an hour in
New Jersey.”
Above: Outside Hoboken Terminal during
NFL opening weekend. Right: With DIY sports betting,
there’s no ceiling to the fun.