Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, whose state led the legal challenge that helped launch the nation’s new legal sports betting industry, will visit Las Vegas next month as a keynote speaker at the Global Gaming Expo.
Christie will address the industry’s largest conference and trade on Tuesday, Oct. 15, during G2E’s opening session at the Sands Expo and Convention Center.
New Jersey’s six-year court battle culminated in a challenge to the constitutionality of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) and ultimately led to the U.S. Supreme Court’s May 2018 decision to overturn the federal sports betting ban.
To date, 13 states, including Nevada’s legacy market, have launched sports betting operations through casinos, racetracks and mobile wagering applications since the Supreme Court ruling. Another five states, along with Washington D.C., could launch legal sports betting by the end of the year.
Six other states have either active legislation or ballot initiatives in place.
“Gov. Christie played an essential role in advancing legal sports betting in the United States,” AGA CEO Bill Miller said in a statement. “Since May 2018, efforts to legalize sports betting and bring this popular American pastime out of the dangerous illegal market have taken place in more than 80 percent of the country.”
Miller highlighted that more than $10 billion has been wagered in legal and regulated markets since the Supreme Court ruling.
“None of that would have been possible without Gov. Christie,” Miller said. “His insights on how we got here and where we are going will be invaluable to G2E’s attendees.”
G2E is presented by the AGA and organized by Reed Exhibitions. Christie’s keynote address will take place at 9 a.m. on the Special Events Stage.
“New Jersey was a trailblazer in paving the way for other states to have a say in whether they want to allow sports betting, and I am honored to have had a role in it,” Christie said in a statement. “More than a year after the Supreme Court struck down PASPA, it’s just as important as ever that stakeholders continue to collaborate to make the legal, regulated sports betting marketplace more robust and available to consumers.”
In March, at the AGA’s Sports Betting Executive Summit in National Harbor Maryland, Christie, during a keynote address, said New Jersey’s effort to get the sports betting issue in front of the nation’s highest court was always his ultimate goal.
He said the matter of allowing New Jersey and other states to legalize and regulate sports betting was a 10th Amendment states’ rights issue.
“We lost six times in the lower courts, but we knew our view on the issue was right,” Christie said in March. “We wanted the opportunity to make our argument to people who would listen.”
On Monday, G2E announced National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman will take part in a wide-ranging discussion concerning the expansion of legal sports betting and the convergence of the activity within the sports industry. He will be joined by Joe Asher, CEO of William Hill US; Greg Carlin, co-founder and CEO of Rush Street Gaming; and Matt King, CEO of FanDuel, in the panel discussion.
With Christie joining the G2E speaker line-up, Scott Stratten’s keynote address will now be held at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 16.
G2E is expected to attract 27,000 gaming industry professionals. The conference portion takes place all four days, and the tradeshow runs Tuesday through Thursday.
Howard Stutz is the executive editor of CDC Gaming Reports. He can be reached at hstutz@cdcgamingreports.com. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
