New Jersey lawmaker seeks support for protection against a federal ban on online gambling

A New Jersey lawmaker has taken pre-emptive steps to ensure that legalised online gambling in his state is not jeopardised by any federal actions against online gambling that may develop.

Assemblyman Vincent Mazzeo has introduced a resolution in the New Jersey Assembly which includes an appeal to the federal Trump administration and the US Congress to oppose any federal legislative attempts to prohibit individual states from exercising their Tenth Amendment authority to legalise and conduct gambling activity.

The Assemblyman’s move comes in an uncertain political environment in which the new president’s intentions regarding the autonomy of the states to legalise and conduct intrastate online gambling remains the subject of speculation.

New Jersey online casinos have been legal for several years without any evidence of the problem gambling, security, land cannibalisation and criminal activity that were widely predicted by opponents, and the financial revenues being generated look promising.

Mazzeo’s AJR137 states:

This resolution urges United States President Donald Trump, members of President Trump’s administration, and Congress to oppose any measures and actions that would prohibit states to conduct Internet gaming.

“Recent measures in Congress, if pursued by the new Congress and supported by the President and his administration, would prohibit the transmission by wire communication of any bet or wager or of information assisting in the placement of any bet or wager, including Internet gaming. In his confirmation hearing as nominee for United States Attorney General, Senator Jeff Sessions indicated his desire to revisit the federal Justice Department ruling that currently allows the states to authorize Internet gaming.

“These measures and actions would invalidate New Jersey’s implementation of Internet gaming, which the State authorized in 2013 to be conducted by Atlantic City casinos in partnership with their Internet gaming affiliates and under strict regulation and control by the State’s Division of Gaming Enforcement.

“A federal prohibition against Internet gaming would directly and negatively impact New Jersey by dismantling the investments that the State and Atlantic City casinos have already made to implement and regulate Internet gaming, taking away the economic and employment opportunities already realized by the State and its residents, and foreclosing the future potential of Internet gaming to generate tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue, create high-tech software jobs, and foster valuable business ventures for Atlantic City casinos in this State.”

Resolutions such as Assemblyman Mazzeo’s give lawmakers an opportunity to vote on a topic and make the majority opinion or perspective known, but have no actual force in law.

Whilst the new administration’s intentions are presently unclear in regard to online gambling at state level, this sort of pre-emptive move, if approved, would leave the feds in no doubt as to New Jersey’s political position on the issue.

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