New Jersey is home to plenty of slot machines, Roulette wheels, blackjack tables and poker hands, but its gambling mecca, Atlantic City, lacks one attraction rival Las Vegas can boast – legalized sports betting.
And with the Super Bowl as a backdrop, a state senator is renewing efforts to bring legalized sports betting to the Garden State.
However, odds may be slim that gamblers one day will be able to go to Atlantic City and lay money down on a Super Bowl or any professional sporting event.
Federal law restricts legalized sports betting to Delaware, Montana, Nevada and Oregon. But Sen. Raymond Lesniak said Friday that he was willing to gamble that sports betting will come to New Jersey sooner rather than later.
“With the biggest sporting event of the year taking place this weekend, it’s naive to think that sports betting isn’t taking place right now in the Garden State,” said Lesniak, D-Union County. “But because of an act of Congress, we’ve surrendered sports betting to organized crime, offshore casinos and Las Vegas. Why should millions of dollars go to Las Vegas, offshore casinos and the mob?”
Lesniak plans to introduce a bill that would ask New Jersey voters whether professional sports betting should be allowed in the Garden State and to call on Congress to rescind the federal law restricting sports betting.
He’s not the first New Jersey lawmaker to propose the move.
Assemblymen Lou Greenwald, D-Camden, and Jeff Van Drew, D-Cape May, have pushed similar legislation for years, but it’s never received a full Assembly vote. Bills also passed the Senate in 1992 and 1993 that would have paved the way for sports betting in New Jersey, but they never passed the Assembly.
“It’s not possible unless they change the federal law,” said Republican Sen. Bill Gormley, whose district includes Atlantic City. “Sure, I’d like to see it, but what I don’t like doing is offering people false hope.”
The NFL and NBA have rallied against talk of legalized sports betting in New Jersey.
NFL attorney Jay Moyer was not immediately available for comment Friday, but he previously told New Jersey officials that legal sports betting in the state would “create a pervasive climate of suspicion about any controversial play in a game.”
“It would send two very bad messages,” Moyer said. “One is that anything goes when it comes to raising revenues and, two, that gambling and sports are natural partners.”
Lesniak challenged such reasoning.
“These sports organizations turn their backs on steroid scandals and thug behavior from players because it puts fans in the seats,” Lesniak said. “It’s hypocritical to say we need to ban sports betting to protect the integrity of the sport when the owners are tacitly endorsing so much worse.”
Lesniak, an attorney, also questioned whether federal law gives Las Vegas casinos an unfair advantage, making it vulnerable to a legal challenge through anti-monopoly laws.
Proponents of sports betting in New Jersey estimate the state might bring in up to $8 million in additional annual casino tax revenue through sports betting, plus boost the number of visitors to Atlantic City casinos.
Source: AP