New Jersey expensive attempt to legalise sports betting

The state of New Jersey’s attempt to overthrow the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act and implement intrastate sports wagering (see previous reports) has been a costly affair, according to a report from the Associated Press news agency over the weekend.

In a series of court actions in which the state has been unable to persuade  the judiciary that it has a right to enjoy sports betting along with four other US states permitted to do so under the PASPA, New Jersey has spent $2.8 million in taxpayer funds, the news agency claims, citing data it has obtained from public records.

The expenditure was incurred between August 2012 and the end of 2013, and the litigation is ongoing, with the main beneficiary legal firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

The issue is probably in its final phase as the state waits to find out whether its appeal to the US Supreme Court will be heard.

“The total amount to be borne by taxpayers will be higher when other attorneys’ fees are added; for example, former Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver and former Senate President Steve Sweeney became part of the case in November 2012, but information on their fees was not available from the attorney general’s office,” the AP report claims.

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