New Jersey Residents Want Sports Betting

New Jersey residents passed an amendment to the State Constitution yesterday to allow Sports Betting in the State of New Jersey.  The question on the ballot was worded as follows:

PUBLIC QUESTION NO. 1

CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT AUTHORIZING LEGISLATURE BY LAW TO ALLOW WAGERING ON SPORTS EVENTS AT ATLANTIC CITY CASINOS AND AT HORSE RACETRACKS.

Shall the amendment to Article IV, Section VII, paragraph 2 of the Constitution of the State of New Jersey, agreed to by the Legislature, providing that it shall be lawful for the Legislature to authorize by law wagering at casinos or gambling houses in Atlantic City and at current or former running and harness horse racetracks on the results of professional, certain college, or amateur sport or athletic events be approved?

INTERPRETIVE STATEMENT

A “Yes” vote on this question would allow the Legislature, when permitted by federal law, to legalize the placing of bets on certain sports events at casinos, racetracks, and former racetrack sites.  Currently, federal law only permits this type of betting in Nevada and Delaware.  It also occurs through illegal betting operations.  If legalized in New Jersey, bets could be placed on professional, college, or amateur sports or athletic events, except that bets could not be placed on any college sports or athletic event that takes place in New Jersey or in which a New Jersey college team is playing.

With 91% of the precincts reporting, according to The Star-Ledger, there were 578,410 Yes votes and 315,692 No votes (65%-35% in favor of Yes).  Although the federal law still must be overturned, and I am pretty sure the highly hypocritical NFL will still have a say in matters, a 2-1 vote by the people is a huge tool in the arsenal to fight this battle in court.    After all, this country is governed by a Democracy and anything less than legalization at this point will be a complete failure by Government and a smack in the face to what all of our veterans have fought for throughout the years.

The wording of the question allows sports betting to not only be allowed in Atlantic City but also at horse racing tracks and more importantly former sites of horse racing tracks.  This wording allows the State to capture the New York market with horse race tracks in the Meadowlands and Monmouth, and more importantly allow for sports wagering in Cherry Hill, site of the former Garden State Park, one of the most successful horse racing sites in the country pre-1960.  Cherry Hill is an affluent suburb of Philadelphia and by including that wording, it will pre-empt any attempts by the aggressive Pennsylvania government to add sports betting to their many casinos across the state and corner the Philadelphia market. 

Looking at post legalization issues, another interesting sentence in the question is that bets could not be placed on any college sports or athletic event that takes place in New Jersey or in which a New Jersey college team is playing.  So the State of New Jersey loses any revenues from betting on Rutgers football.  Considering Rutgers chances of making a BCS National Championship game, which is the only way this can directly hurt the State, I do not feel this a big loss.  The State will also lose out on revenue from Rutgers, Princeton, Seton Hall, Farleigh Dickinson, Monmouth, Rider, Saint Peter’s and New Jersey Tech basketball games which may hurt somewhat if those teams go on a prolonged run in the NCAA Tournament.  However, considering that the last New Jersey team to make the Final Four was Seton Hall in 1989, I don’t think this will be much of an issue either.

The major question I pose is what happens with college sports or athletic events that take place in New Jersey?  The Meadowlands has long been a favorite of the NCAA to host Regional Finals ever since Final Fours are now held in football stadiums.  Will the State of New Jersey and the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority turn down offers to hold NCAA Tournament games in any round because the revenue from booking the action state wide is of greater value than hosting the games?  How ironic would that be after the NCAA vowed to never allow the State of Delaware the ability to host any NCAA Tournament games in any sport if single game wagering were allowed in the State in their lawsuit a few years ago.  I am not an economic expert so am not sure what the possibilities are as to what provides more value, however, if the State of New Jersey ever turns down hosting an NCAA Tournament basketball game, you would see a frantic nationwide push to legalize sports betting across the country.

Who should we thank? Well, first off the State of New Jersey Government and Governor Christie for publicly backing this issue.  Also, the State of Pennsylvania for being so aggressive with adding casinos to the State they have single handedly hurt Atlantic City’s bottom line by taking scores of gambling customers from Philadelphia and New York City who were always ticketed to head to Atlantic City.  Finally, the State of Delaware, who in defeat a few years ago when trying to bring single game betting to their State provided groundwork for the State of New Jersey to work around and not make the same mistakes Delaware made in their push to legalize.

Finally, a Rutgers poll prior to the vote showed that this bill would pass with a 58% yes vote.  The final tally of 65% showed that more people want the legalization of sports betting than perceived.  This is a first step in that direction.

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