Senator Raymond Lesniak to prepare a sports bill for casinos and racetracks

State Senator Raymond announced on Monday at the East Coast Gaming Conference that he is preparing a bill to allow for private operation of sports betting at the state’s racetracks and casinos.

Senator Raymond Lesniak said that he will move forward on the bill in the Legislature should the U.S. Supreme Court decline to hear the state’s case next month. Speaking at the East Coast Gaming Conference in Atlantic City, Lesniak said that that it will be possible to bet in New Jersey next year. “Right now, book your hotel room [in Atlantic City] for the Super Bowl next year and the NCAA Final Four, because you won’t be able to get one. We are going to have sports betting in New Jersey next year. Go to the bank on it, because if the [Supreme Court takes the case], it will be overturned”. Before adding that “if it isn’t, it’s the position of the Justice Department in their briefs that they are not stopping states, but telling those states they’re free to stop preventing such betting without officially sponsoring it. I have legislation being drafted, and that will be introduced, to allow casinos and racetracks to have sports betting on our premises. We just won’t be able to regulate it. We pushed the envelope with Internet gaming, and we will push the envelope on sports betting. And we are not going to be deterred.”

The U.S. Department of Justice is defending the legality of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) that bars state-sponsored betting in all but four states. Last week it reiterated its contention that the law is not unconstitutional because it merely prevents the sort of state-sponsored sports betting that New Jersey’s current state law is meant to offer.The federal government and the NCAA, the NFL, and three other professional sports leagues last year prevailed at the U.S. District Court and Third Circuit Court of Appeals levels. That has led Governor Christie to make a final appeal for the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case. The Department of Justice’s most recent filing contends that even if the court questioned the federal law’s prohibition against sports betting, that law also prohibits private operators from offering such gambling. The state has countered that if the main provision is not legitimate, the entire law may need to be struck down.

According to David Rebuck, State Division of Gaming Enforcement Director, “Internet gaming exists in all 50 states. It’s just unregulated in 47 of them, with only New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware offering a legal version of the betting”.

Source NorthJersey.com