NJ Can Have Professional Sports Betting - by Senator Raymond Lesniak

[clevfan]

NJ Can Have Professional Sports Betting
by Senator Raymond Lesniak

Monday May 19, 2008, 9:33 AM

Senator Raymond J. Lesniak delivered the following testimony to the Senate Wagering, Tourism, and Historic Preservation Committee during their May 19th hearing on sports betting.


In 1992 Congress passed a law that made residents in New Jersey and 45 other states second class citizens. And when it allowed sports betting in Nevada and three other states, while giving New Jersey a one year window to adopt sports betting or forever be banned from permitting it, Congress did more than make us second class citizens. It violated the Constitution of the United States of America.

I have asked the Corzine Administration to file suit declaring the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) unconstitutional. If it chooses not to take up this cause, I will file suit myself on behalf of plaintiffs with standing to challenge the federal law.


The federal ban violates the uniformity requirement of the Commerce Clause. "The desire for uniform regulation of commerce was perhaps the single biggest catalyst for the Constitutional Convention...Many delegates to the Convention...feared that Congress would use the commerce power as a means of discriminating in favor of some states at the expense of others". 91 Va. L. Rev. 249, 254. (April, 2005). Since our current U.S. Supreme Court gives considerable weight to original intent, the time is right to take up this challenge.

I have also written to the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States alerting it to the imminent lawsuit and asking that it be discussed at its June conference. Other states are likely to support our efforts if we take the lead.

The potential impact of legal professional sports betting in New Jersey is huge. The finding of the New Jersey Assembly Tourism and Gaming Committee in 2004 that it would raise $5-8 million tax dollars a year is way low. The Committee extrapolated from Nevada's data. But tourists don't go to Nevada for sports betting. They go there for casino gambling. On the East Coast, sports gamblers either bet illegally through "bookies" or the internet. The revenue to be generated from those bettors is much greater.

I've recently come to believe that professional sports betting could be the salvation of horse racing in this state and across the nation. Just as snow boarding saved the ski industry, sports bettors would be attracted to our racetracks. Unlike casino gambling, horse racing is an athletic event like other sports. Sports betting and horse racing are a perfect fit.

Horse racing is dying and taking its $1 billion dollar industry, 19,000 jobs and open space used for horse farms in Monmouth and Ocean County to the grave with it. We can not and should not continue to subsidize it. We should revitalize it or let it go.

Sports betting is a reality. Let's put it to good use and tell Congress New Jersey will no longer allow it to discriminate against our residents.

[Total Square]

this guy has the power to get stuff done in the legislature. he is a power broker

[blue]

Bring it home!!

[clevfan]

NJ senator vows fight for legalized sport betting

5/19/2008, 12:35 p.m. ET
By TOM HESTER Jr.
The Associated Press


TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey senator is vowing to fight a federal law that limits legalized sports gambling.

Sen. Raymond Lesniak said Monday that he's asked Gov. Jon S. Corzine to file suit declaring the federal law an interstate commerce violation.

The federal statute limits legalized sports betting to Delaware, Montana, Nevada and Oregon.

If Corzine doesn't take action, Lesniak — a Union County Democrat who heads a major law firm — said he'll file a lawsuit himself.

New Jersey is looking to bring professional sports betting to Atlantic City casinos and horse racing tracks, but a 1993 federal law limited legalized sports betting to the four states, though only Nevada enables it.

"Congress did more than make us second class citizens," Lesniak said. "It violated the Constitution of the United States of America."

He said federal law cannot favor some states over others.

"Other states are likely to support our efforts if we take the lead," Lesniak said during a Senate hearing.

Corzine's office didn't immediately comment on Lesniak's request.

Jay Moyer, special counsel for the National Football League, said the federal law would withstand challenge. The NFL opposes legalized sports betting.

"It is a losing proposition to think that you're going to win litigation to overturn the federal law," Moyer said.

But Sen. Jeff Van Drew, D-Cape May, said a conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court could favor states' rights.

"It is very difficult to understand how sports book could technically be legal in four states but not in 46 others," Van Drew said.

Proponents of sports betting in New Jersey hope it would boost visitors to Atlantic City casinos now competing with slots parlors in neighboring states.

Estimates of illegal sports gambling in the U.S. range up to $380 billion per year.

"Sports betting is a reality," Lesniak said. "Let's put it to good use and tell Congress New Jersey will no longer allow it to discriminate against our residents."

The Assembly earlier this year approved allowing sports wagering in Atlantic City casinos and the Meadowlands, Monmouth Park, and Freehold Raceway horse tracks.

Senators took no action Monday. Sen. Jim Whelan, D-Atlantic, said they would weigh their options, but Moyer urged them to drop the effort. Moyer said legalized sports betting creates a "corrosive climate of negativity and suspicion" and it would lure people to illegal wagering.

"You condition people to bet on sports, you encourage it, pretty soon they're going to realize you don't have to go to Atlantic City to do it," he said.

But Whelan noted how the Delaware House recently passed a bill to develop a sports lottery by Feb. 1.

Proponents estimate $800 million could be wagered annually on pro sports in Atlantic City.

"This is a marketing feature," Whelan said.

[Rogthedodger]

This will be great. Landmark case that will open the door nationwide.

[drunkguy]

Originally Posted by Rogthedodger

This will be great. Landmark case that will open the door nationwide.

or a mismanaged case that will set bad precedent


could go either way and considering this is a case with govt bureaucrats representing each side, I don't have high hopes of this being handled well

[Rogthedodger]

LMAO, point taken, DG.

[clevfan]

Some aim to dispute U.S. ban on sports bets

Legislator thinks reversal could help casinos, tracks

Tuesday, May 20, 2008
BY JOE DONOHUE
Star-Ledger Staff

A prominent state legislator said yesterday New Jersey should sue to overturn the federal ban on sports betting -- and if the Corzine administration won't do it, he'll go to court himself.

"If it chooses not to take up this cause, I will file suit myself on behalf of plaintiffs with standing to challenge the federal law," said Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union), an attorney.

David Wald, spokesman for the Attorney General's Office, said he had no comment on Lesniak's request.

Lesniak spoke at a 90-minute hearing by the Senate Wagering, Tourism and Historic Preservation Committee on proposals to legalize sports betting at New Jersey casinos and horse racing tracks.

In 1993, New Jersey passed on a chance to legalize sports betting before enactment of a federal law that banned it in every state except Nevada, Delaware, Oregon and Montana. Betting is actually conducted only in Nevada.

Sen. Jim Whelan (D-Atlantic), the committee's chairman and former mayor of Atlantic City, said he believes it makes sense to enact legislation now in case the federal ban is struck down or repealed. He thinks it eventually will be repealed by Congress because gambling is now nearly universal in the United States, while the federal law is blocking sports betting in 46 states.

"Sooner or later, the ban goes away and everybody has it," Whelan said.

An official from the National Football League spoke adamantly against the legislation, saying it would be a big mistake.

Jay Moyer, NFL special counsel, said the league would love to see sports betting banned even in the four states where it now is allowed.

"We think it is bad public policy. We think it won't accomplish anything positive for the state," Moyer told the committee members. "And we believe very strongly that you can't do it legally."

Several legislators from both parties said it could help bolster the fortunes of both Atlantic City and the state's racetracks, but the committee took no action pending consultations with Senate leadership. Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex), a staunch opponent of sports betting, said he has no intention of posting two pending bills that would authorize sports betting. The Assembly approved one of the bills in February.

Codey said it is futile to enact legislation now. "As long as the federal government forbids it, it is like spitting in the wind during a hurricane," he said.

Whelan said he believes sports betting could add an important dimension to the state's gaming facilities, though he and other supporters acknowledged it wouldn't produce a giant financial windfall for either the state or the gaming industry.

"It really becomes a marketing feature for the casinos as well as the racetracks," he said, noting that Atlantic City is like a ghost town on Super Bowl weekend compared to Las Vegas.

Sen. Jeff Van Drew (D-Cape May), sponsor of one of the sports betting bills, said the new form of gambling would "help the state. It will help both of those industries."

"Everybody's gambling on sports. The question is, are we going to make it safe and legal," he said. But he questioned whether the state should spend money on "long shot" legal action against the federal ban.

Linda Kassekert, chairwoman of the Casino Control Commission, took no stand on the issue but said that if sports betting is ever approved, the commission feels confident it can regulate it.

[howid]

I'll believe it when I see it.