New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Redskins and the Giants have long enjoyed one of football?s greatest rivalries, but this fall there will be an even more exciting sports clash between Washington and New Jersey. This time it will take place?off the field. The state?s iconoclastic governor Chris Christie has vowed to push legalization of sports gambling across the goal line in the Garden State at last, while the Feds are threatening to throw the yellow flag.
Christie wants the state?s racetracks and casinos to be making book on sports by the end of the year, but the NCAA and the four major professional sports leagues in North America sued him earlier this month in federal court in Trenton. They cited a 1992 law, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, sponsored by then-Senate basketballer Bill Bradley, that limited sports gambling to the states where it already existed: Nevada, Delaware, Montana and Oregon.
But New Jersey proposes that no betting be allowed on New Jersey college teams, or on any college games taking place in the state. The bets would have to be placed in person, meaning there would be no question of interstate commerce that would make it a federal issue. ?Moreover, on what grounds can Congress allow a business to run in certain states but not others? U.S. District Judge Garrett Brown threw out a suit brought by a state senator along these lines, but left the door open for the governor and attorney general to sue the federal government on 10th Amendment grounds that PASPA violates state sovereignty. Ray Lesniak, the state senator, has cited a study claiming legalizing sports book in New Jersey would bring $1.3 billion in revenue and, at a proposed tax rate of 9.25 percent, net the government $120 million in tax collection.
Since sports gambling can hardly be immoral in some states but not others, this is a clear case of crony capitalism. Christie can expect stern opposition from a classic bootleggers and Baptists coalition. Just as moralists and underground liquor manufacturers are equally supportive of anti-booze laws for different reasons, the scolds and the sharps will be united in their wrath.
The bootlegger would be Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader and Nevadan who is deeply dependent on the financial and political muscle of the casinos and fiercely protective of his state?s market share in gambling. The Baptists would be those well-known saints from the big five college and pro sports leagues ? you know, the ones who did such a great job preserving the integrity of their games from steroids, recruiting corruption and the sexual abuse at Penn State. They believe, correctly, that legalizing sports gambling in more states would cause an already sizable industry (estimated at $380 billion by the International Sports Betting Association) to swell and leave contests susceptible to corruption. That is simply their business problem, though, and hardly of concern to legislators entrusted with acting in the public interest. Moreover, sports betting is freely available throughout?the United Kingdom, conducted by respected firms such as Ladbroke?s and William Hill, and yet the UK sports scene continues in robust good health, with no particular corruption problems.
New Jersey has affirmed and re-affirmed its support for legalized sports betting, first in a referendum that passed by a 2-1 margin last November, then in a state law signed by Christie last winter. A state that sells more than $2 billion in lottery tickets and hosts battalions of one-armed bandits that stand ready to empty its customers? pockets is sanguine about allowing gambling that rewards study and expertise. And the governor is not normally associated with avoiding confrontation, to put it mildly. ?If someone wants to stop us, let0 them try to stop us,? he has said. His actions amount to saying, ?OK, come and get me, coppers,? an expert on gambling and the law, I. Nelson Rose of Whittier College told The Philadelphia Inquirer.
So far the judge presiding over the sports leagues? lawsuit has not issued an injunction, meaning for now there is nothing stopping New Jersey from licensing sports betting firms to operate in the state. If Christie succeeds, a bad law will be benched forever, and he has plenty of cheerleaders as he takes the field. Legislators in other cash-strapped states (including California, Missouri, Rhode Island and Iowa) are also seeking an end to PASPA. And let there be no doubt how this game will end if the big man prevails. This is one politician who definitely will spike the football.
earl csco big bend national park leon russell meredith vieira prop 8 larry bird
No comments:
Post a Comment