Much Riding on Sports Betting in New Jersey

Monmouth Park photo by Eclipse Sportswire
If visitors to Monmouth Park in New Jersey on Sunday hope to get a bet down on the Green Bay Packers, they will come home disappointed.
Despite the fact that Monmouth had spent more than $1-million preparing for and marketing the introduction of sports betting in New Jersey on Oct. 26, a court in Trenton issued a temporary injunction preventing Monmouth Park from taking any bets.
Sports betting has been hailed as a potential life preserver for gambling in New Jersey for years, but reached a serious pitch two years ago when Gov. Chris Christie told lawmakers and gaming companies that he would not veto legislation to repeal the state’s restrictions on sports wagering. The issue, then, was whether or not the federal government would step in and enforce the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) of 1992.
PASPA was the law that effectively banned all sports wagering in the United States except for a few states that already had it (Nevada, Delaware and Oregon). New Jersey had an opportunity to legalize sports betting before PASPA and be grandfathered in but the state refused.
Back then, casino gambling was thriving and nobody could imagine the gaming landscape in New Jersey today. This year alone, a third of Atlantic City’s once-mighty casinos have closed up shop, putting thousands out of work.
CHANGING ATLANTIC CITY SKYLINE

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New Jersey battled in court with the major sports leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and NCAA) over the state’s right to permit sports betting for the last two years. A recent circuit court ruling on PASPA stated that it would be up to each individual state to decide whether or not and how to enforce the federal law, which many felt paved the way for New Jersey to legally repeal the current state law banning sports betting so casinos and racetracks could offer sports betting without breaking any state laws.
Then all the state had to do was sit back and choose not to enforce PASPA, as was their right according to this ruling. The repeal passed in the New Jersey legislature overwhelmingly and was signed in to law by Governor Christie. Monmouth Park was the first site willing to test the waters this weekend, prompting the injunction.
The sports leagues who asked the court for the injunction claim that New Jersey does not have the right to promote or encourage or otherwise permit sports betting, which they argue New Jersey is doing by repealing their state prohibition. New Jersey is arguing that they have every right to repeal their own laws and to choose not to enforce federal ones. They are pointing to the recent decision in Colorado to legalize the use of marijuana as a similar case.
For now there won’t be any sports betting in New Jersey until there’s a ruling on the injunction.
Well, almost none - the injunction only addresses the leagues that filed for it. So technically Monmouth Park can take bets on things like tennis, NCAA sports, MMA, and other sports. But the real money won’t roll in unless they can get this settled before the end of the NFL season.
In 2011, Nevada reported handling $3.2-billion in sports bets, and $1.3 billion of that was bet on football. The Super Bowl alone is worth more than $100-million in bets alone in Nevada. And if the state and Monmouth Park ultimately prevail in court, the sports leagues will have to pay Monmouth Park more than $1-million dollars in restitution for demanding the injunction. So the clock is running. Talk about a major sweat. 
HASKELL DAY AT MONMOUTH PARK

Photo by Eclipse Sportswire