With two $20 bets
and a rambunctious crowd awaiting their turn, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy placed the state’s very first legal sports bets on Thursday, capping a years-long battle to end the ban on sports betting in the Garden State.
While sports betting is legal in many other countries, a 1992 U.S. law barred it in the United States except for a limited number of states, such as Nevada, where casinos have long included sports betting. New Jersey voters agreed in 2011 to change the state’s constitution to legalize sports betting, in part as an economic and revenue boost to the state’s ailing horse racetracks and gambling hub Atlantic City. State lawmakers quickly passed bills to legalize it, but professional sports leagues pushed back in court, arguing that it was illegal under the old federal law and that sports could be more easily corrupted due to increased money at stake. But in May, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with New Jersey and overturned the 1992 law. Now West Virginia, Connecticut, Mississippi and New York are looking to bring sports wagering out of the shadows, with other states are likely to follow.
Reuters