Is All Finally Well Between New Jersey Officials and Sports Leagues?

The dialogue between conflicting parties

A six-year-long legal turmoil between New Jersey state officials and five sports organizations was undoubtedly very bitter. But since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last spring that New Jersey and other states could offer sports betting, David Rebuck, Division of Gaming Enforcement Director, feels things are no longer the same.

At the Meadowlands Exposition Centre in Secaucus, David Rebuck expressed that the adversarial position between sports leagues, the state, and the NCAA was very intense and they have all decided to end the battle. As part of this cooperation, they had asked for the ability, not to have veto power, but to communicate directly with each other about prohibitions on specific betting.

What can other states learn from Rebuck’s approach?

At the “New Jersey — Land of Opportunity” panel, Louis Rogacki, Rebuck’s deputy, announced that March Madness saw sports bettors plunking down over $100 million in New Jersey, 10% of that would go to the treasury of operators. But Rebuck made a few critical points that other states should take note. These include:

• Having clear and strong gaming regulations.
• Setting the tax rate in the bracket of 10 to 20 percent on revenue instead of the gaming handle.
• Deciding the role of operators and whether casinos, racetracks, and third-parties can come to bid.
• Granting regulators criminal and civil authority.
• Deciding on mobile sports betting, retail sports betting, or both.

It’s certainly a major decision for a lot of people as per Rebuck. If online betting isn’t there, then he’s determined to urge the legislature to take measures to protect the commercial entities. The online gaming market is enormous, robust, but threatens retail operators as they can lose their business to unregulated offshore sites.

Rebuck suggested that other states should be cautious about how much money they want to give to the sports leagues. So far, none of the states with regulated sports betting have mandated that operators pay a “royalty” or an “official data” fee.

However, many legislators are worried about certain concerns. The biggest question facing them is—Will mobile sports betting cannibalize revenues of well-established brick-and-mortar casinos or racetracks?

This is where Rebuck gave them the confidence that the idea of cannibalization is meaningless in the present context of New Jersey’s excellent gaming performance. Rebuck also said that fall NFL Sundays have transformed casinos in Atlantic City, turning them from “dead” to “buzzing with excitement.”

We can only hope that New Jersey lives up to the sports betting community’s expectations and manifests an environment that is conducive to operators, sports leagues, legislators and of course, the bettors.