Lesniak pledges to get NJ gaming bill signed
Raymond Lesniak pledges to pass egaming bill and get it signed by Governor Chris Christie within the "first few weeks of the new session".
New Jersey Senator Raymond Lesniak has pledged to pass his egaming bill through the state’s legislature and get it signed by Governor Chris Christie within the “first few weeks of the new session” which begins next week.
The chairman of the state’s Senate Economic Growth Committee said it was not a question of “if New Jersey gets internet wagering, but when. My money’s on soon,” he said.
“Speaking with Governor Christie, I’ve agreed to reintroduce internet gaming in the next legislative session, and I expect that we can get it through the Legislature and signed by the Governor within the first few weeks of the new session,” he said in a statement this afternoon regarding the status of his bill, S3019, which would authorise internet gambling in New Jersey.
“I believe that internet gaming has transformational potential for New Jersey’s gaming industries. While I remain hopeful that New Jersey can take the lead on this exciting new direction for wagering “ which would result in new revenues, new jobs, and new economic activity in the Garden State “ I recognise that the complex issues surrounding internet wagering will take more time to iron out than we are afforded in the waning days of the current legislative session.”
Questions remain as to whether or not the current constitution would have to be amended. Lesniak, however has publically stated that he is “convinced” that the bill can pass without doing so.
If permitted and Christie was to go against his previous veto of the bill in March last year the measure would authorise the state Casino Control Commission to issue licenses to casinos to operate servers based in Atlantic City. Software would then determine whether a player was a New Jersey resident, the game was being played in New Jersey and whether the player was 21 or over.
Christie originally vetoed the bill over concerns about expanding casino gaming beyond Atlantic City’s borders, subsidies for horseracing and various legal issues including people setting up internet betting cafes and areas on or over state lines.
Lesniak has since promised the Governor that core egaming operations would be based in Atlantic City and that he is willing to drop the horse racing subsidies to get the measure through.
At a press conference yesterday, Christie said he supported Lesniak’s revised plan. “I think New Jersey should be in that business. I think we should be a epicentre for that business, but I want to do it right.
“I do not want to rush and get legislation that either doesn’t pass state constitutional muster, or creates other problems for us.”
Following a Department of Justice announcement in December last year on the 1961 Wire Act clarifying that its prohibitions relate solely to “sports-related gambling activities in interstate and foreign commerce”, a number of states have reignited their bids to open some form of intrastate online gambling.
Yesterday New York Governor Andrew Cuomo called for an amendment to the State Constitution to allow online gaming in New York State as a means to create jobs and safeguard tax revenues, while Governor Steve Beshear used his fifth state of the commonwealth speech yesterday to call on politicians to put a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot so Kentucky voters can decide whether or not to legalise egaming.
Nevada and the District of Columbia have already enacted intrastate internet gaming legislation, while the state of Nevada has begun accepting intrastate internet gaming license applications.