New Jersey’s governor backs legalized sports gambling

During an interview given last week, NJ Governor Jon Corzine said that he will join and support New Jersey’s Senator Ray Lesniak’s lawsuit against the Federal Government, which was filed New Jersey State by Lesniak and the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association and seeks to overturn the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act approved in 1992. The Governor claims the current Federal prohibition discriminates against the 46 states in where sportsbetting is not permitted by the federal law.

“The Federal Government's prohibition on sportsbetting for some but not all states is fundamentally unfair. There should be uniformity in the application of Federal law. If one state is allowed to legalize betting on sports events, all states should be allowed the same opportunity.' said Corzine.

The Governor's comments come a few weeks after Governor Jack Markell from Delaware legalized sportsbetting in an attempt to raise the tax income and to relieve the $600 million deficit in state budget reported for the coming fiscal year. Currently, only the states of Delaware, Montana, Nevada and Oregon are allowed to offer sports betting services. If the ban is reversed, Senator Ray Lesniak said that he would like to authorize sportsbetting at casinos, racetracks and off-track betting establishments to take bets on sports events and allow people to place bets online and over the telephone, which is an illegal action according to the UIGEA. Overturning the ban would also help to invigorate Atlantic City's economy, which is being deeply affected over the last year due the world economic crisis and suffered a massive decline in revenues in the last twelve months. Corzine stated that New Jersey can start generating an estimate of $100 million in extra revenue each year through the eight percent tax on gaming revenues.