Women on Tiktok recount being punched in the face by men while walking NYC streets
NEWS

New Jersey says sports bets legal at casinos, tracks

Bob Jordan; and Michael Symons
@BobJordanAPP; @MichaelSymons_

ATLANTIC CITY – Call it Gov. Chris Christie’s Hail Mary pass.

Faced with a rash of casino closings under his watch, Christie’s administration Monday cleared a path for New Jersey casinos and racetracks such as Monmouth Park to permit sports betting and asked a federal judge to allow it to take effect.

The legal maneuver is likely to face a fight from sports leagues.

Christie’s acting attorney general, John Hoffman, issued a statewide directive that tells county and municipal prosecutors and police that casinos and tracks would not be committing a criminal offense under state law if they operated sports pools, so long as no wagering occurs on events that take place in New Jersey or that involve any New Jersey college teams.

The plans were announced before the governor met with tourism industry leaders at a two-hour summit in which the discussion focused on developing a turnaround plan for Atlantic City and its casino business.

Sports betting is seen as a way to pump in new revenue to help counter four casino closings and the loss of 7,600 jobs this year. That includes the scheduled Sept. 16 shutdown of Trump Plaza, which will reduce the number of Atlantic gaming halls to eight. The resort started the year with 12 casinos.

Trump Taj Mahal, which has the same owner as Trump Plaza, also is on the brink of running out of money to pay its bills and make debt payments, according to a recent financial filing.

The Christie administration also asked U.S. District Judge Michael Shipp to hear its request that Shipp clarify or modify an injunction he issued in February 2013 that prevented the state from enacting sports betting. The state wants to be sure it can repeal its prohibition of sports wagering, which it says would be different than approving and authorizing it even though regular laws and regulations would apply. Shipp is expected to act Oct. 6.

The NFL and other sports league did not immediately announce plans to go back to court to take on Christie but Dennis Drazin, consultant to the management of Monmouth Park, said he expected the state to prevail over challenges and that sports betting would begin at the Oceanport track “in the very, very near future.”

The author of New Jersey’s sports betting bill, Sen. Raymond Lesniak, D-Union, said the leagues “are out of arguments on why we can’t do this.”

Drazin said the new source of betting revenue “will certainly breathe new life into New Jersey’s gaming community.”

New Jersey voters endorsed sports betting in a 2011 referendum, but sports leagues successfully challenged the state law that was passed by the Legislature and signed by Christie following that vote.

Last September’s federal appeals court ruling upheld the constitutionality of the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act but said New Jersey wouldn’t be prohibited from repealing its ban on sports wagering. Shipp’s injunction from early 2013 didn’t address that distinction.

“Merely applying laws and regulations of general applicability does not constitute licensure or authorization of sports wagering,” the state says in its new court filing.

“The fact that some individuals are prohibited from gambling does not mean that the state is ‘sanction(ing)’ or ‘approv(ing)’ gambling for everyone else. This is simply common sense: An ordinance stating “no dogs in the park” would not be understood as putting the state’s imprimatur on a reptile lover’s decision to bring her pet python to the park, just as a sign in a restaurant that said ‘no smoking on the patio’ would not constitute a state endorsement of smoking in every place other than the patio.”

Christie last month vetoed legislation that partially would have repealed prohibitions against sports wagering at casinos and racetracks.

Christie said the decision to sidestep the federal ban is Hoffman’s, not his, and declined to comment on the impact it will have on the state’s gaming industry.

“It’s not my directive. So I’m certainly not going to tell you what I think it means. The attorney general issued the directive,” Christie said.

He denied sports betting is a panic move and called the casino closings “an inevitable occurrence” because of an oversaturated gambling market.

“We made every effort to try and forestall it predominantly because we didn’t want people to lose their jobs,” Christie said. “It accelerates the sense of a need for some even bolder action.”

But he insisted sports betting “was not discussed” at the summit.

“It was not timed for today at all. It’s the attorney general’s decision, not mine. I support what he’s doing.”

Christie had vetoed a second bill from Lesniak that set out the strategy now being followed.

Lesniak said Christie changed his mind after the rash of casino closings.

Lesniak said, “Atlantic City needs help and that certainly influenced the governor’s thinking.”

Michael Symons: 609-984-4336; msymons@app.com