New Jersey denied sports-betting bill
New Jersey governor Chris Christie has vetoed a bill that would have legalised sports betting in the state.
The legislation would have side-stepped federal law and allowed bookmaking operations at the state’s casinos and race tracks.
However Christie called federal law “sacrosanct” and said that breaking it would be “counter to our democratic traditions and inconsistent with the constitutional values I have sworn to defend and protect”.
The veto appears at odds with state-wide sentiment.
The bill passed both houses of the state legislature with at least 90% of the vote, while New Jersey citizens had previously supported a 2011 referendum to legalise sports betting.
This has led to suggestions that Christie’s presidential ambitions caused him to block the bill.
State news site NJ.com speculated that sports betting would be “a loser with the Republican party’s very conservative policy-making base”.
Back in June, gambling law expert Nelson Rose told Gambling Insider: “There is no way an ambitious politician like Christie will want to be known as the governor who allowed everyone in the state to be a bookie.”
State senator Raymond Lesniak, who introduced the bill, said that Christie had “stuck a dagger in the heart of Atlantic City and our ailing horse racing industry”.
“He’s giving up,” Lesniak said. “And that’s sad, because he’s giving up a great opportunity for New Jersey to have the benefits from sports betting that Las Vegas has, and that are currently enjoyed by organized crime.”
Lesniak says the next step is trying to override the veto, or simply waiting for a new governor.
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