New Jersey Sports Betting Law
- New Jersey Sports Betting Laws. Sports betting is now legal in New Jersey thanks to a May 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision that deemed the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) to be unconstitutional. Prior to the Supreme Court decision, PASPA prevented New Jersey and most other states from legalizing and regulating sports betting.
- Jun 13, 2018 Now that the law has been passed, New Jersey is wasting no time in joining Nevada and Delaware (which beat New Jersey to the punch by a week) as a legal sports betting state. Land-based sportsbooks are expected to begin opening on Thursday. Betting will begin at @MonmouthPark at 10:30 a.m., Thursday.
After years of legal wrangling, Gov. Chris Christie today signed a law that is expected to clear the way for legalized sports betting at New Jersey's casinos and horse-racing tracks —. The NJ sports-betting law requires that there is an 8.5% tax charged on revenue generated from sports-betting in the state. A 13% tax is charged on the revenue from land-based casinos and a 14.25% tax charge on revenue from racetrack related sporting venues.
New Jersey Sports Betting – Bet On Sports Legally In NJ New Jersey is a state that features legal sports betting via legislation that was enacted after PASPA's removal in 2018.
By David Cruz
Correspondent
Earlier this month, when the state announced it would not penalize racetracks or casinos that wanted to start taking sports bets, Gov. Chris Christie, through his attorney general, essentially legalized most sports betting in New Jersey. But most observers assumed a challenge would be coming, and now it has. Joined by the Justice Department, the NCAA, Major League Baseball, NFL, NBA and National Hockey League have filed briefs asking an appeals judge to stop the state.
“The court said, according to the latest decision, that they did not prohibit the state from eliminating, or standing in the way, of conducting sports betting in the state of New Jersey, so that’s what we’re trying to accomplish,” said Assemblyman Ralph Caputo. “We’re eliminating that penalty.”
Using that rationale, Assemblyman Caputo sponsored the bill in the Assembly that Christie vetoed in August. Then this month, Christie reversed course, while asking the court to clarify the language in its decision, which the governor had interpreted to mean that New Jersey could move forward on gambling. The leagues had no comment today. But at stake, say lawmakers, is a cut of the reported $500 billion wagered illegally every year.
“Well it’ll literally bring hundreds of millions of dollars of economic activity,” he said. “It’ll help the gaming industry. It’ll help the gaming industry, which is struggling.”
That’s four casinos closed this year and others possibly on the way, meaning thousands of jobs lost. Then, there’s potential tax revenue for the state, which, according to its balance sheet, could use an infusion of cash. Sen. Ray Lesniak says he’s undaunted by the leagues’ motions. He is pushing a new bill.
“First of all, the Department of Justice filed their brief and basically said if we had legislation in place that I’m going to be introducing with Sen. [Joe] Kyrillos to repeal our laws against sports betting, then we can go ahead and do it,” he rationalized.
Today, some residents, even non-bettors, said they can get behind the effort to bring a sports book to the state.
Lisa Latimer of Newark says she thinks it’s a good idea. “I think it would be profitable for the state of New Jersey. They’re betting already, illegally, and we’re not getting any revenue from it,” she said.
“The NFL is certainly making plenty of money,” added John Doyle of Jackson. “The NBA is making plenty of money, so people want to try to get some of that money for themselves, let them. The state can use the revenue and if they can get it from people willingly, that’s better for me.”
Gov. Christie says he supports sports betting, and by reversing course this month, he may have, inadvertently or otherwise, set in motion the legal process that brings it to New Jersey.
All this could be decided by a judge as early as next week. But lawmakers say, as long as there are billions of dollars being wagered, they’ll continue to step to the table and roll the dice.
New Jersey Sports Betting Law
New Jersey Sports Betting Locations
On Tuesday, Governor Chris Christie signed a bill into law that legalized sports betting in the state of New Jersey. The only issue? There is currently a federal ban on gambling which will need to be overturned before this bill can officially be passed. If that law is overturned, it may set the precedent for other states to legalize betting in their own state — an appealing option to the many states running a budget deficit.
New Jersey voters supported this bill by a 2:1 margin in November and the bill passed through the state’s legislature last week, but bill S3113 took perhaps it’s biggest step to date when it was signed by Governor Christie yesterday.
Currently only four states — Nevada, Oregon, Montana and most recently Delaware — have legalized sports betting, and New Jersey is set to become the fifth. The law would allow betting on all collegiate and professional sporting events although bettors would be prohibited from wagering on in-state colleges such as Rutgers.
Sports betting revenue would be taxed at the same 8% rate that casino patrons typically pay on their gambling winnings. According to CBS News, a 1990s study indicated that sports’ betting is a $380 billion industry in the U.S. and many believe that the market has since grown to $500 billion since. That means legalized sports betting could theoretically inject $40 billion dollars into the economy.
New Jersey Sports Betting Monmouth
This is obviously an important issue to sports bettors everywhere, and the team at SportsInsights will continue to monitor this situation as it progresses. You can receive breaking news updates like this in addition to betting trends and key injury updates by following us on twitter @SportsInsights.