New Jersey senator warns that state will not tolerate a federal ban on its online gambling industry

Comments at his confirmation hearing this week by the incoming Trump administration’s Attorney General nominee, Jeff Sessions, that he would revisit the issue of online gambling and the Wire Act (see previous report) have triggered a swift reaction from New Jersey, which has been successfully running legal and regulated online gambling for the past several years.

New Jersey Senator and gubernatorial candidate Raymond Lesniak warned that any attempt to overturn a 2011 Department of Justice opinion that the federal Wire Act exclusively governs sports betting would be met with a hard-nosed reaction from his state.

Lesniak said that legalised online gambling was important to New Jersey and its Atlantic City land casino operators who have successfully gone online, and they would hardly welcome the risk to their investments and operations that such federal interference would represent.

The senator said that, should Sessions be confirmed and subsequently chooses to change the DoJ Office of Legal Counsel opinion, New Jersey would certainly take judicial measures against him, which Atlantic City operators would support.

In related news, the Poker Players Alliance has been quick to follow up on its criticism of Sen. Lindsey Graham’s questions in the Sessions hearing regarding the Office of Legal Counsel view on the Wire Act.

The Alliance has published a video clearly illustrating the apparent conflicts in the hearing statements of the two men, which can be accessed here: