New Jersey governor Chris Christie made a bold move by announcing that his state will allow sports gambling this fall. He will disobey a federal law that only allows sports gambling in a few predetermined states. Those states had to opt-in back in 1991.
A federal law called the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act limits sports betting to four states that approved it by a 1991 deadline: Nevada, Delaware, Oregon and Montana. At the time, New Jersey was given the chance to become the fifth but failed to act during a prescribed window.
With New Jersey’s bold move, which states could benefit from sports gambling and follow their lead?
I do believe that this is my first political article on this blog, but it pertains to sports gambling, so I had to chime in. America’s White Boy is a big advocate of sports gambling and I run many posts about the subject. A large portion of our revenue comes from sports gambling ventures or sports handicapping businesses. My articles are “for entertainment purposes,” but I would love to not include that phrase in the near future.
Atlantic City, New Jersey is the second most traveled to city where gambling is one of the main attractions. Over the last twenty years, the city has taken a big hit and their twelve casinos and four horse racing tracks are losing money. A lot of the former gamblers are now traveling to Las Vegas, Nevada, a state where sports gambling has been legal since 1992. New Jersey would earn billions in revenue from sports gambling and would revitalize Atlantic City.
Governor Christie is a Republican vice-presidential candidate in this year’s election. He could have even been a presidential candidate if he chose to throw his hat in the ring. He is known to be bold and to take center stage. He announced that he doesn’t care what the feds have to say about disobeying the law, because this would greatly benefit the state. He mentioned that 50% of the revenue would go towards fighting gambling addiction.
Many European countries allow gambling on sports and regulate it. An addiction to gambling is a grim predicament, but should it be the government’s business if someone wants to place a bet on a football game in New Jersey or anywhere else? It’s a moral question that will be on the forefront of this issue.
The federal government has yet to comment on New Jersey’s proclamation.
New Jersey could find themselves in hot water with the NFL. The new Meadowlands is due to host a Super Bowl in a few years and the NFL has been strongly against sports betting. They could force the hand of the governor by threatening to pull out. The NY/NJ area would lose close to a billion dollars in revenue from hosting a Super Bowl. The NFL has yet to comment on Christie’s proposed sports gambling initiative. It would be a tough choice for him. A decision that would cost the state from hosting a Super Bowl would be very unpopular with the voters.
If everything in New Jersey works out, which states could also benefit from legalizing sports gambling? Any state that has a few casinos in their state. The tax revenue created by this could turn around many states’ bottom lines. California, Michigan, Missouri, Connecticut, New York, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, Alabama, and New Orleans all have casinos and would be other states that would best benefit from following in New Jersey’s footsteps.
This move would hurt Las Vegas, a city that has been hit with an economic issues of its own over the last five years. A lot of patrons come from the east coast and could direction their trip to Atlantic City.
I’m all for sports gambling and it would benefit the U.S. economy. This could be the surge of revenue that rivals the end of Prohibition. After this issue passes and states see all of the new income, the legalization and decriminalization of marijuana could be one step closer.
Snoop Dogg would be ecstatic!
