NJ politicians urge House to back sports betting bills
Congressmen Frank Pallone Jr and Frank Lobiondo present "two separate, but equally effective, pathways toward the same goal of bringing sports gaming and the economic benefits it yields to the State of New Jersey".
Two New Jersey Congressmen have sent a letter to the US House of Representatives encouraging its members to support two bills that would overturn the 1992 “federal prohibition” of sports betting in all states but Nevada, Oregon, Delaware, and Montana.
Congressmen Frank Pallone Jr and Frank Lobiondo, one of the new sponsors of the Barton bill in California, yesterday sent official correspondence to the House explaining they had developed “two separate, but equally effective, pathways toward the same goal of bringing sports gaming and the economic benefits it yields to the State of New Jersey”.
The New Jersey Betting and Equal Treatment Act of 2012, HR 3081, provides New Jersey with an exemption to “federal prohibition”, the letter explains, allowing state law in New Jersey to determine how sports betting will be regulated within the state.
The second bill, entitled the Sports Gaming Opportunity Act of 2012, HR 3797, would open a window in which states would be able to enact a law providing for sports gambling within their state until January 1 2016, after which the federal prohibition against states allowing sports gambling would go back into place.
“We ask that you join in our efforts to bring sports betting to New Jersey by cosponsoring both H.R. 3809 and H.R.3797. Your support of these two pieces of legislation is an important part of our continued efforts to giving New Jersey an excellent opportunity with tremendous economic benefits that has been supported by the people of the state,” read the letter.
The push on sports betting in the US Congress follows a move in the California state senate, where a committee this week approved a bill that would permit sportsbetting at the state’s tribal casinos, tracks and card rooms.
“Momentum is building for expanded, state-regulated sports betting in the US,” said Joe Brennan Jr, director of IMEGA.
“With the success we’ve had in New Jersey, with voters approving sports betting in the November 2011 election by a 2-to-1 margin, lawmakers in Washington DC and elsewhere are taking a greater interest in the role that government can play in legalizing the activity, while protecting the integrity of the games through tight regulation and monitoring,” he added.
In 1992 Congress passed the Professional and Amateur Sport Protection Act (PASPA) which prohibits all but four states from allowing sports betting. At the time of passage, said Pallone Jr and Lobiondo, New Jersey was given a period of time in which to enact a law allowing sports gaming but “failed to do so within the one year window”. Currently, the states with exemptions are Nevada, Oregon, Delaware, and Montana, each of which had some type of sports betting at the time of passage. Nevada currently permits a range of wagering on sporting events.
Pallone Jr (pictured) is keen to introduce legislation on the basis that “New Jersey voted for and deserves a bite of the apple in terms of sports betting.”
Last November the Congressman announced plans to introduce a bill with the aim of excluding the Garden State from federal restrictions on sports betting. This came just days after voters backed plans for intrastate sports betting by a 2:1 margin in a statewide referendum to amend the state constitution and allow sports gaming at casinos and at racetracks.
The State of New Jersey Legislature subsequently passed and Governor Chris Christie signed a law allowing people over the age of 2l to place a bet on a sporting event in-person at special lounges created in casinos, racetracks or at the site of a former racetrack within the state. The law does not permit wagers to be placed on college games that take place in New Jersey or on any game in which a New Jersey college team participates, regardless of where in the country the game takes place.
Senator Raymond Lesniak, whose online gaming bill S1565 passed out of committee by an overwhelming majority this March and will now move to a full floor vote in the Senate in the next few months, has been attempting to also overturn PASPA for the last three years.
In 2009 Lesniak and state Senate President Stephen Sweeney filed a complaint that the federal restrictions were “unconstitutional”. However in March last year this was thrown out by federal judge Garrett Brown, who stated that the lack of legalised sports betting in New Jersey “puts the cart before the horse”.
In a statement last November, Joe Brennan Jr, director of lobby group iMEGA, noted that “Federal law now directly conflicts with the constitutional will of the people of New Jersey.
“New Jersey’s citizens have voted to amend their state constitution to permit regulated sports wagering. This referendum was a reflection of the most powerful form of change in our government “ a purely democratic, majority decision by popular vote,” he added.