A New Jersey Assembly Committee will hold a further hearing into the state’s proposed online gaming legislation today.
The Regulatory Oversight and Gaming Committee reportedly delayed a vote on the bill from last week after it failed to reach a decision on whether or not the expansion of gambling proposed under the bill would require changes to the state constitution and therefore a voter referendum, as was held for the Garden State’s sports betting legislation last November.
Governor Chris Christie vetoed an earlier version of the bill last March over concerns over its potential to expand gambling outside of Atlantic City. The NJ state constitution currently only allows betting on horse racing and the lottery outside of Atlantic County.
Christie was concerned that the bill language created a potential loophole for bars, nightclubs and restaurants to offer betting outside of AC, and criticised the “legal fiction” in the bill that just because servers and infrastructure were located within the Garden State’s casino district, this meant that all wagers from NJ residents therefore originated from there.
The bill introduced by Senators Ray Lesniak and Jim Whelan passed out of Senate Committee last week by a 3-0 vote with two abstentions, despite opposition from state horse racing industry representatives due to the removal of an earlier funding commitment from the online gaming legislation.
