Women and Sports Betting

Let me start off this article with an anecdotal (but true) story. Earlier today I was speaking to a bar owner in New Jersey. He was telling me how he had to ask a bookie to quit taking bets in his establishment. This was not overly surprising to me because, over the years, I have heard of bookmakers settling up with people at local bars, and especially at sports bars. He went on to tell me this person would walk into the restaurant/bar, pull up a chair at an empty table, open their notepad and start taking bets. That is pretty ballsy, I thought to myself. But, that isn’t even the kicker.

He told me that the bookmaker in his bar is a 60-year-old female. “Really!?” I exclaimed. He confirmed that it was a female and that she is a part of a two person team that takes bets locally. I thought to myself “Oh now this makes sense, its her boyfriend or husband she is taking the action for.” Nope. It is a two female team and the husband actually knows very little about sports. The bar owner had to tell her to stop this activity at once because it could get him in trouble for having gambling activities taking place in his establishment.

Women in sports betting is nothing new. They have always taken part. A bookmaker I knew twenty years ago would talk about his clients and he told me that he had one or two females that bet every week. A report published online says that men are twice as likely to bet on sports as women. I have been to the sportsbook desk many times and I have to say from appearances only, there are 15 men for every one woman betting on sports.

Women like to gamble as well. But, men are much more likely to be sports fans. Sports betting combines the two activities. Women are more likely to play time-consuming gambling games (like slots for example). In fact, one study shows that the average male gambler spends just 14 months of his life gambling compared to a woman’s 21 months.

Women taking your sports bet is nothing new to a veteran sports gambler. There are most likely women clerks at your favorite vegas sportsbook. And you are likely to speak to a woman 2 out of every 3 times you call your offshore sportsbook. But as far as a local town bookie, you just never hear about a woman running that kind of business.

• Scott Morris