With New Jersey still trying to overturn a federal ban on sports betting in the U.S. Supreme Court, several New Jersey politicians came together to point out what they say is a gross injustice.
Atlantic City is empty at the moment while Las Vegas—where sports betting is legal—is packed with gamblers betting on the NCAA basketball tournament.
“The world bets on sports. It’s just a known fact,” said Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian. “The fact that we can’t compete in that game is unfair.”
Guardian was joined by New Jersey State Senate President Steve Sweeney.
“Right now in Las Vegas, 97 percent of the rooms are booked, hundreds of thousands of people are in the city, spending millions of dollars,” he said. “We’ve been betting on sports since the beginning of time. People are betting on football, baseball, basketball games. If they could bet in ant races, they would. We know that.”
New Jersey had hoped to have sports betting in place by now, but has routinely been blocked in the courts. The state has made its last appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
That state argues that a prohibition on sports betting is unconstitutional since it exempts four states, including Nevada, and unfairly treats other states, among other arguments.
Sports betting is legal in the four states that met a 1991 deadline to approve it: Delaware, Montana, Nevada and Oregon. New Jersey failed to approve sports betting by the deadline.
Sweeney said he’s not surprised by the failure of the state’s effort in lower courts, but predicts the state will win the case if the Supreme Court agrees to hear it. He estimated the odds of that happening at 50/50.
