The legal battle against sports betting in New Jersey
The United States Department of Justice has been opposed to the fact that New Jersey wants to allow land-based casinos and racetracks to offer sports betting despite it being banned at federal level.
The United States government believes that the state has no right to authorize this activity.
They therefore called before District Judge Michael Shipp as he maintains the order of the court which prevents the development of this sector.
However, legislators in New Jersey believe they are not breaking the law and still want to further strengthen their legal position.
We will provide more information about this subject in the rest of this article.
The PASPA Act from 1992
With this recent announcement, the United States Department of Justice just echoed the arguments of professional sports leagues who say that New Jersey is acting against the law for the protection of professional and amateur sport called PASPA.
This regulation prohibits sports betting outside of Nevada, Delaware, Montana and Oregon, which have all received exemptions to offer sports betting services when Congress passed the PASPA Act in the year 1992.
A new legislation to strengthen the legal position of New Jersey
Led by Senator Ray Lesniak, the lawmakers of New Jersey say that the Act prohibits the state to authorize and regulate sports betting.
In fact, New Jersey is not interfering with this activity, and it is neither authorized nor regulated in the state.
They simply do not continue allowing institutions to offer these services to their customers, which will make a big difference to lawmakers in New Jersey.
Ray Lesniak also recalls that betting is only accepted on condition that they be placed on events that have locations outside of the state, which means they do not conflict with the federal law of 1992.
Earlier this week the politician was accompanied by another senator from new Jersey named Joseph Cyrille, in order to strengthen the legal position in New Jersey, who has also unveiled a new legislation to abolish any aspects of the law that prohibits the state to offer sports betting.
It now remains for us to wait and see who will win this showdown: the federal government or the state.
