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The State of New Jersey’s legislatures has approved a bill that would legalise sports betting wagers to be accepted by the state’s casinos and racetracks.
Both the New Jersey Assembly and the Senate voted unanimously to approve the bill, voting 73-0 and 37-0 respectively, reflecting the opinion that full-scale sports betting is required in the state to improve tax revenue and public funds.
The bill would see New Jersey become the second state in the US to offer full-scale sports betting after Delaware following the US Supreme Court’s decision to repeal PASPA.
Atlantic City casinos and the Monmouth Park Racetrack will be excited at the prospect of finally being able to accept full-scale sports wagering at their venues, and eventually online 30 days after the other regulation are in place with a high 13% tax rate for such wagers.
The tax rates in the bill also include an 8.5% fee for casinos wagers, with an additional 1.25% add-on intended for promoting and marketing Atlantic City, or in the racetracks instance the add-on fee would be used to benefit the local communities which they are in as well as the county as a whole.
However, it’s not great news for everyone as US professional and collegiate sports leagues have been unable to influence the bill, as it does not contain measures surrounding sports integrity fees which they have been requesting. The leagues also failed to acquire measures which would have made casinos and the state regulators share real-time data with them.
The bill will now be passed to the state Governor Phil Murphy. If he gives his approval and signs the bill, operators will be able to begin to accept wagers on sports betting and end New Jersey’s long wait for full-scale sports betting.
