Bill Text: NJ S2460 | 2014-2015 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Partially repeals prohibitions, permits, licenses, and authorizations concerning wagers on professional, collegiate, or amateur sport contests or athletic events.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 7-3)
Status: (Passed) 2014-10-17 - Approved P.L.2015, c.62. [S2460 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2014-S2460-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Senator RAYMOND J. LESNIAK
District 20 (Union)
Senator JIM WHELAN
District 2 (Atlantic)
Senator JOSEPH M. KYRILLOS, JR.
District 13 (Monmouth)
Co-Sponsored by:
Senator Beck
SYNOPSIS
Partially repeals prohibitions, permits, licenses, and authorizations concerning wagers on professional, collegiate, or amateur sport contests or athletic events.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act partially repealing the prohibitions, permits, licenses, and authorizations concerning wagers on professional, collegiate, or amateur sport contests or athletic events, deleting a portion of P.L.1977, c.110, and repealing sections 1 through 6 of P.L.2011, c.231.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. (New section) The provisions of chapter 37 of Title 2C of the New Jersey Statutes, chapter 40 of Title 2A of the New Jersey Statutes, chapter 5 of Title 5 of the Revised Statutes, and P.L.1977, c.110 (C.5:12-1 et seq.), as amended and supplemented, and any rules and regulations that may require or authorize any State agency to license, authorize, permit or otherwise take action to allow any person to engage in the placement or acceptance of any wager on any professional, collegiate, or amateur sport contest or athletic event, or that prohibit participation in or operation of a pool that accepts such wagers, are repealed to the extent they apply or may be construed to apply at a casino or gambling house operating in this State in Atlantic City or a running or harness horse racetrack in this State, to the placement and acceptance of wagers on professional, collegiate, or amateur sport contests or athletic events by persons 21 years of age or older situated at such location or to the operation of a wagering pool that accepts such wagers from persons 21 years of age or older situated at such location, provided that the operator of the casino, gambling house, or running or harness horse racetrack consents to the wagering or operation.
As used in this act, P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill):
"collegiate sport contest or athletic event" shall not include a collegiate sport contest or collegiate athletic event that takes place in New Jersey or a sport contest or athletic event in which any New Jersey college team participates regardless of where the event takes place; and
"running or harness horse racetrack" means the physical facility where a horse race meeting with parimutuel wagering is conducted and includes any former racetrack where such a meeting was conducted within 15 years prior to the effective date of this act, excluding premises other than those where the racecourse itself was located.
2. (New section) The provisions of this act, P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill), are not intended and shall not be construed as causing the State to sponsor, operate, advertise, promote, license, or authorize by law or compact the placement or acceptance of any wager on any professional, collegiate, or amateur sport contest or athletic event but, rather, are intended and shall be construed to repeal State laws and regulations prohibiting and regulating the placement and acceptance, at a casino or gambling house operating in this State in Atlantic City or a running or harness horse racetrack in this State, of wagers on professional, collegiate, or amateur sport contests or athletic events by persons 21 years of age or older situated at such locations.
3. Section 24 of P.L.1977, c.110 (C.5:12-24) is amended to read as follows:
24. "Gross Revenue"-- The total of all sums actually received by a casino licensee from gaming operations, [including operation of a sports pool,] less only the total of all sums actually paid out as winnings to patrons; provided, however, that the cash equivalent value of any merchandise or thing of value included in a jackpot or payout shall not be included in the total of all sums paid out as winnings to patrons for purposes of determining gross revenue. "Gross Revenue" shall not include any amount received by a casino from casino simulcasting pursuant to the "Casino Simulcasting Act," P.L.1992, c.19 (C.5:12-191 et al.).
(cf: P.L.2011, c.231, s.7)
4. (New section) The provisions of this act, P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill), shall be deemed to be severable, and if any phrase, clause, sentence, word or provision of this act is declared to be unconstitutional, invalid, preempted or inoperative in whole or in part, or the applicability thereof to any person is held invalid, by a court of competent jurisdiction, the remainder of this act shall not thereby be deemed to be unconstitutional, invalid, preempted or inoperative and, to the extent it is not declared unconstitutional, invalid, preempted or inoperative, shall be effectuated and enforced.
5. Sections 1 through 6 of P.L.2011, c.231 (C.5:12A-1 through C.5:12A-6) are repealed.
6. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill implements the decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Governor of New Jersey, 730 F.3d 208 (3d Cir. 2013), wherein the court in interpreting the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA), 28 U.S.C. § 3701 et seq., stated that it does "not read PASPA to prohibit New Jersey from repealing its ban on sports wagering." National Collegiate Athletic Association, 730 F.3d at 232. The court further stated that "it is left up to each state to decide how much of a law enforcement priority it wants to make of sports gambling, or what the exact contours of the prohibition will be." Id. at 233 (emphasis added). Moreover, the United States in its brief submitted to the Supreme Court of the United States in opposition to petitions for writs of certiorari in the above-referenced case wrote that "PASPA does not even obligate New Jersey to leave in place the state-law prohibitions against sports gambling that it had chosen to adopt prior to PASPA's enactment. To the contrary, New Jersey is free to repeal those prohibitions in whole or in part." United States Brief to the Supreme Court in Opposition to Petitions for Writs of Certiorari (Nos. 13-967, 13-979, 13-980), dated May 14, 2014, at 11 (emphasis added).
