Former New Jersey state assemblywoman Joan Quigley has said that she does not believe the federal government will intervene as New Jersey launches a sports betting programme.
Source: vote-nj.org
Writing for the NJ.com website, Quigley said of Governor Chris Christie’s decision to revisit his earlier veto of sports betting in the Garden State: “Of course, the federal government still says that [it’s] illegal, but supporters of sports wagering in New Jersey are betting [US attorney general] Eric Holder won't send federal troops here to enforce the ban.”
Christie’s U-turn follows a decline in the fortunes of New Jersey’s bricks-and-mortar casino industry, with four Atlantic City casinos closing this year.
The governor now interprets the implications of the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act as excluding the New Jersey legislature from “authorising” sports betting but allowing the state to take a more liberal view of private companies seeking to offer sports wagering – provided the bets are on events taking place outside of the state itself.
Clearly expecting such an arrangement to proceed unmolested by Congress - and most probably at the state’s Monmouth Park racetrack - Quigley said: “Our treasury will gain from ordinary corporate business taxes paid by these new entities, even though the state can’t acknowledge the money is derived from gambling.
“Track and casino owners will hugely profit from increased patronage,” she added.
