Christie suggests NFL betting could be legal in N.J. in time for 2018 Super Bowl

John Brennan
NorthJersey

Gov. Chris Christie expressed optimism on Monday about New Jersey winning its legal battle on sports betting — and said Monmouth Park would be ready to accept bets "inside a week to 10 days" if the U.S. Supreme Court sides with the state on the issue.

Christie, appearing on the "Boomer and Carton" program on WFAN sports radio, said the Supreme Court "hopefully" will agree by the end of the month to take up the long-running sports betting case.

Christie — a former U.S. Attorney — said that if the court takes the case and sides with the state, fans could be betting on NFL games "certainly in time for the Super Bowl" in February 2018.

While the state has pushed for such betting, the NFL and four other sports organizations sued New Jersey in 2012 and have prevailed in a series of federal court rulings to prevent the state's racetracks and Atlantic City casinos from offering sports betting. New Jersey has appealed the issue to the Supreme Court, which has yet to decide whether it will hear the case.

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A 1992 federal law outlawed sports betting in the U.S. while carving out an option for four states that had offered some form of sports betting — Nevada, Delaware, Montana, and Oregon — to continue that form of gambling.

Monmouth Park is a party to the New Jersey lawsuit, and operators of the state's other racetracks and the casinos have said they are waiting for a successful legal result before moving forward. British bookmaker William Hill already operates a sports bar at Monmouth Park that resembles a Las Vegas casino sports book, where such bets are taken.

The William Hill sports bar, designed like a Nevada sports book, opened in 2014 at Monmouth Park.

The sports betting case has been added to a list of cases for a weekly conference at the Supreme Court on June 22. A decision on whether to take the case is likely to be announced on June 26, said Daniel Wallach, a sports law attorney.

If the nation's top court ultimately sides with New Jersey, Christie said it would have a head start on rival states.

"If they say that states should make the decisions, New Jersey voters have already decided by a two-thirds vote [in a 2011 referendum] that they want sports gambling, and so that's what we would do in our state, and I assume a lot of other states would follow," Christie said.

Gov. Chris Christie

The likelihood of the Supreme Court accepting the case appeared to diminish last month when the Office of the U.S. Solicitor General, having been asked by the court to analyze the case, recommended that the court leave it alone.

On the radio program, Christie criticized the Obama administration for what he said was its "pick and choose" inconsistency on enforcement of federal bans.

"So, for instance, the Obama administration said it was OK to legalize recreational marijuana even though marijuana is still illegal on a federal level," Christie said. "But the Obama administration said no on gambling.

"It's interesting — 'yes' to getting high recreationally, but 'no' to sports gambling," Christie added. "They're two vices, and you're either pro or you're against."

Asked about the Trump administration's stances, Christie replied, "I think they're against both. That's why you go to the Supreme Court — to try to get them to trump the executive branch. No pun intended, of course."