New Jersey Legislators Push For Betting on Collegiate Sports

Updated On May 6, 2021 by Ella McDonald

New JerseyNew Jersey changed the sports betting climate in America after the Supreme Court ruled in its favour and repealed the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) in May 2018.

That decision allowed the Garden State to legalize sports betting and other states to make their own decisions on whether to legalize sports betting or not.

New Jersey wasted no time in passing its sports betting bill and regulations. Since then, the sports betting market in the state has thrived and has continued to do well with each passing year. Stats show that bettors in New Jersey bet over $6 billion in 2020 and over $1 from that was bet in December 2020.

New Jersey permits retail sports betting, online and mobile sports betting. However, regulations did not make provision for collegiate sports betting at the time because they did not want sports betting to be done on college sports. Current regulations also stop bettors from wagering on any New Jersey collegiate teams that are competing out of state as well.

However, state legislators are now pushing a new bill that will allow bettors to place bets on collegiate sports. Collegiate basketball and football tournaments generate a lot of interest in the state and illegal sports books are offering action on these collegiate sporting events.

State legislators have witnessed the boom in the sports betting market and are keen to tap into the potential revenue they are leaving on the table with collegiate sports. The State Assembly panel review a bill to allow collegiate sports betting on May 05 and moved it forward.

Sen. Paul Sarlo said that sports betting in New Jersey is now mainstream and there was no reason to not allow bets on collegiate sports. Sarlo claims that he is confident that this new bill will be on the ballot before the end of 2021.

Confident That Collegiate Betting Will Be Approved

Assembly Member Eric Houghtaling said that collegiate betting was no pushed forward in the initial regulations because there was concern from a number of sides. However, with sports betting turning out to be so successful in New Jersey, Houghtaling said he was confident that collegiate sports betting would help shine the spotlight on collegiate teams and young athletes early on in their careers.

The collegiate sports betting bill still needs to pass the full Senate and Assembly before heading off to Gov. Phil Murphy for approval.

Ella McDonald Author

Worldwide gambling related news stories are what you will find being written by Ella, she has a keen interest however in UK and European based new stories relating to all gaming environments, and she is always prepared to ask the difficult questions many other journalists avoiding asking those in power.

Comments are closed.