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As Gambling911.com was among the first to report, on Tuesday voters in New Jersey overwhelmingly voted for a referendum favoring sports betting in the state by a margin of 65 percent to 35 percent.
If you were thinking about betting on some College Football games this weekend in Atlantic City, that won’t happen.
There are two more steps to getting sports wagering in the Atlantic City casinos and the state racetracks.
First, the state legislature must pass draft legislation that will be authored by State Senator Raymond Lesniak of Union City. Like the voters in New Jersey, the state legislature has also offered its support for this initiative, as has the Governor for that matter.
The final step is the trickiest. A lawsuit would be filed against the Department of Justice that would overturn a current ban on legalized sports betting in the state.
One can also anticipate the National Football League to block any attempt at legalizing sports wagering as they have in the past (think Delaware two years ago).
What if in the rare instance neither the NFL or US Justice Department get in the way of the will of the people? (Yeah we’re dreaming but…)
“If the DOJ and the leagues declared that they would not challenge NJ's new law, then the casinos and tracks would immediately move to add sports books to their sites,” Joe Brennan, Jr. of the Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association told Gambling911.com Wednesday.
“I don't think that will happen, though. The NFL has made it clear that they will fight this to the last man. They are used to getting their way, and probably think they will now. However, they do not have any logical leg to stand on, only emotional appeals. They'll lose, then try to find a way to co-opt things once they've lost.”
- Chris Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
