Gamblin'

Sports Betting Probably Isn’t Coming To New Jersey Anytime Soon

New Jersey was planning to start offering sports-betting options as early as next month, but the plan hit a roadblock in the form of a multi-billion-dollar conglomerative monopoly.

A federal judge has ruled that the National Collegiate Athletic Association and a coalition of professional sports leagues can sue New Jersey to stop the state from sanctioning and regulating sports betting.

U.S. District Michael Shipp tonight denied the state’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, which was brought by the NCAA, NFL, (MLB), NHL and NBA.

The ruling was issued “because allowing gambling may hurt their games’ reputations.” Of course, this ignores the fact that “some industry estimates now put the total (annual) amount illegally wagered (on sports) nationwide at $500 billion.” And legalizing things and opening them to regulation certainly won’t help, because there have never been any issues with the games’ integrity and illegal gambling. Not to mention the tax revenue, the fact that a recent poll suggests Americans are (slightly) in favor of sports betting, and we’re, like, you know, a democracy.

But money is power, and while a state is a large entity, it’s going to be really, really tough to defeat the NCAA, NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA, who are all firmly against the legalization of sports betting.

So, people will be forced to bet illegally for the time being, and leagues will choose to look the other way, acting like there is no threat to their integrity, when there is probably a greater threat now than there would be under a legalized, regulated system.

[NJ.com; photo via]

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