By REUBEN KRAMER, Staff Writer
New Jersey racetracks could offer sports betting by September in spite of a federal ban, state Sen. Ray Lesniak said Tuesday.

In February, Gov. Christie asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the federal ban on sports betting outside of Nevada, Delaware, Montana and Oregon. An announcement of whether the nation’s highest court will take the case could come Monday.

If the court declines, and the ban stands, Lesniak says he will immediately push state lawmakers to sanction sports betting in New Jersey racetracks in time for the New York Giants’ first regular season NFL game. “Legislation is already drafted, ready to be dropped,” he said.

He expects the first bet to happen at Monmouth Park racetrack on Sept. 8: “I would place a bet on the Giants to cover the spread over the Lions.” It “would be the first sports bet legally placed in the state of New Jersey, at least under the laws of the state of New Jersey.”

”I would be more than willing to do it at one of Atlantic City’s casinos as well, but they haven’t indicated that they would be willing to take on that challenge yet, but Monmouth race track has,” he said.

New Jersey has been fighting in court for years to overturn the ban, called the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. The state says it unconstitutionally infringes states’ rights to raise tax revenue and gives preferential treatment to four states that received exemptions to maintain sports betting operations in place before the law was enacted by Congress in 1992. All four major sports leagues and the NCAA have fought to prevent sports betting from spreading, claiming it taints honest competition by fostering suspicion among fans that bets are impacting games.

Christopher Soriano, chairman of the Casino Law Section of the New Jersey State Bar Association, said that if New Jersey tried to defy the ban, “the sports leagues and the Department of Justice would probably come with everything to try to stop that, and it would certainly lead to more court battles.”
The ban has been already the subject of grinding litigation for more than five years, with federal judges repeatedly finding it constitutional.

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