Gambling in New Jersey

The Monmouth County Agricultural Society was formed on December 17, 1853, and in 1854 they began holding an annual fair with harness racing at Freehold Raceway.

Bookmaking, numbers games, and slot machines were common through the state, many churches and other non-profit organizations openly held bingos, and Freehold Raceway operated without interruption.

Arguably, the temporary shutdown of Atlantic City's casinos in 2006 encouraged neighboring states to continue developing their own gaming industries.

[22] In February 2013, United States District Court judge Michael A. Shipp ruled in favor of the athletic leagues, and barred New Jersey from issuing sports betting licenses.

On June 11, 2018, Governor Phil Murphy signed Assembly Bill 4111, legalizing sports betting at casinos and racetracks within New Jersey.

[30] It also allowed casinos and racetracks to seek approval for online and mobile sports betting after thirty days.

On June 14, 2018, Governor Murphy placed the first bets in the State of New Jersey at the sports book at Monmouth Park.

The 23 online sportsbooks currently licensed and operating in New Jersey are Barstool, Bet365, BetMGM, BetParx, Betway, Borgata, Caesars, DraftKings, FanDuel, Fox Bet, Fubo, Golden Nugget, Hard Rock, PlayUP, Prophet Exchange, PointsBet, BetRivers, Sporttrade, SuperBook, Tipico, Unibet, VIE (EEG), WynnBet.

[33] The Lesniak bill evaded possible federal prohibitions against online gambling by authorizing the Casino Control Commission to create regulations to ensure the bets were placed from inside New Jersey.

[38] John Wefing, a constitutional scholar at Seton Hall Law School, told a state Assembly committee that he did not believe a constitutional amendment was needed to authorize online gambling because "any online poker bet would not be completed until a server in Atlantic City accepted the wager,"[39] and "wagers are contracts, and the law recognizes that contracts occur where the final action needed to take place occurs.

[44][45] On February 26, 2013, a revised bill permitting Internet gambling was overwhelmingly approved by the New Jersey Legislature, and then signed into law by Chris Christie.

The gambler's location will likely be verified through a global positioning system (GPS), and the bill allows interstate compacts to be signed in future in order to authorize multistate gambling.

[48] Macquarie Capital estimates that online gambling will provide Atlantic City's casino with $260 to $400 million in additional revenue per year.

Prior to offering online wagers on the 26th, operators were required to complete a five day “soft play” period in a manner satisfactory to the NJDGE.

These sites quickly gained popularity as they offered players the opportunity to play poker for real money from the comfort of their own homes.

However, in October 2017, the state signed an interstate compact with Delaware and Nevada (both of whom had passed similar legislation to legalize online gambling) called the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA)[56] so players across all three states could compete with each other in online poker and some casino gaming.

[60] The proposed New Jersey Casino Expansion Amendment (2016) resulted from an agreement among Governor Chris Christie and Democratic state legislators, but voters rejected the ballot question by a margin of 77% to 23%.

Even with no in-state competition allowed, four Atlantic City casinos have closed in recent years, causing severe economic problems.

[67] In 2017, a new law was signed that allowed a percentage of lottery profits to help support the public-employee pension system for teachers, police, fire personnel and other public employees for a period of 30 years.

2, which amended the charity gambling law to allow all non-profit organizations to raise money from games of chance to support their operations.

[75] However, the New Jersey Alcoholic Beverage Commission prohibits bars and other holder of liquor licenses from allowing social gambling.

[77] Illegal gambling operations range from employees who make money on office sports betting pools to online poker websites to multimillion-dollar enterprises run by organized criminals.

[86] The legal age for other forms of licensed gambling (e.g., lottery, horse race) is 18, but a person under 18 may take part in amusement games where the prize is an item (e.g., a stuffed animal), and not cash.