NJ egaming bill vote delayed; sports goes ahead
A full Assembly floor vote due today to approve Senator Raymond Lesniak's online gambling bill in New Jersey has been delayed due to a tax change made by the politician last week.
The Assembly floor vote to pass online gambling in New Jersey has been temporarily delayed due to a minor amendment made within the bill last week to reduce the proposed 5% racing levy after five years of the bill being in place, a source close to the matter has told eGaming Review.
The New Jersey Assembly was due to vote later today on Senator Raymond Lesniak’s sponsored online gambling bill “ the penultimate stage before the bill, if successfully voted through with 41 or more votes, goes before the state’s Republican governor, Chris Christie, for his approval and then into law.
ACR167, a bill proposing sports betting, however will still be voted on in both houses later today and is “expected to garner an overwhelming majority”, according to the source. “If a committee meeting is not on the agenda this week then it is likely that the committee will meet after the holidays, in early January,” the source said.
Last Thursday a New Jersey Assembly committee voted unanimously to pass both online gambling and sports betting bills to the floor for a full vote, however Senator Lesniak added a late change to part of the bill’s tax structure and it is now standard procedure for both Appropriation Committees in the Senate and the Assembly, to re-examine and re-approve the legislation.
“There is zero chance of this being derailed,” the source said. “Anytime there are changes to legislature that involve taxation the rules are that it has to go in front of Appropriation Committees in both houses.
“There are no changes to the bill’s prospects. It is still expected to be overwhelmingly approved by both the Senate and Assembly. Unanimous passage by the gaming committees in both houses is ample proof of that,” the source added.
Both bills would allow New Jersey residents to gamble online and are aimed at propping up the Garden State’s ailing horse racing and casino industries. An earlier amendment to allow international customers to participate was dropped last week.
Lesniak has previously said it would generate “millions of dollars in private revenue and would give casinos a new product to capture gaming dollars from tech-savvy gamblers” and that the bill would also “generate a minimum of US$35m in tax revenue to help build a bridge to self-sufficiency for our state’s ailing horse tracks.”