A New Jersey assistant attorney general said Wednesday he remains optimistic of a win in a pending sports wagering case before the U.S. Supreme Court and said the state is already preparing regulation in case of a victory.
David Rebuck, director of New Jersey’s Division of Gaming Enforcement, gave an update on the case during a Global Gaming Expo educational session on “Global Regulation: What Gaming Regs Should Be.” He also spoke to the media afterward.
“I’m always optimistic I am going to win,” Rebuck said. “If I didn’t think we would win, why would we be in this?”
The Supreme Court is expected to set a date for oral arguments by the end of this week. A decision is expected to be rendered by June 2018 at the latest.
New Jersey has challenged PASPA, the 1992 law referred to as the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. The federal law prevents state governments from legalizing sports gambling, with the exception of four states — Nevada, Delaware, Oregon and Montana. Only Nevada is allowed to offer traditional single-game wagers, while the others are limited to parlays with multiple team wagers.
While Rebuck said he’s optimistic about a win, it’s still difficult to predict what the Supreme Court will decide and what exactly their ruling would permit New Jersey to do with sports wagering.
“My position is, we prepare to regulate with a big victory,” Rebuck said. “It may not be that way. We could lose. We could have a split opinion that interprets the decision in a way that goes in a different direction and allows a limited amount of sports wagering. You can’t predict what the Supreme Court is going to do. Nobody knows. We will prepare as best we can for a future which envisions sports wagering in New Jersey. If we are successful, we will be ready and if we’re not, we will continue to figure out a way to try and get sports wagering in New Jersey.”
Rebuck said Congress remains a wild card behind the scenes because it has the potential to change the law before the Supreme Court hears the case. He doubts, however, that Congress will move quickly.
“I don’t think that will happen, but it’s always a possibility,” Rebuck said.
New Jersey has filed its briefs with the Supreme Court and has support from 20 attorney generals across the country, Rebuck said. He told the audience how much the focus of G2E in 2017 has been on the potential advent of sports wagering across the country in the wake of the Supreme Court case.
“This is one of the major initiatives of the state of New Jersey,” Rebuck told the audience. “There’s great anticipation that the matter will be heard by the Supreme Court in the very near future, possibly sometime by the end of this year.”
As for preparing for a Supreme Court decision, Rebuck said the U.S. model for sports wagering regulation in Nevada has done ‘very well,’ but that’s only one model. The other model of regulation is in Europe.
The European model is different from the Nevada model because the European model focuses on online gaming rather than land-based gaming, Rebuck said.
“Our strategy in New Jersey is very simple,” Rebuck said. “We’re going to have land-based and online, and in order to do that we need to take the best of both worlds,” Rebuck said. “We need to steal from Nevada and what they’ve done great for 40 years, and we want to steal from Europe for what they do well for regulation.”
New Jersey will work with other states to discuss what regulatory models they will set up and establish the best practices for regulating sports wagering anywhere in the world, Rebuck said.
“It’s a daunting task,” Rebuck said. “We’re not prepared but aggressively moving in that area and we will be prepared. I look forward to working with other jurisdictions who want to join us in this endeavor.”
Charles LaBoy, executive director of the Pokagon Band Gaming Commission, the tribal nations are following the sports wagering debate in the U.S. and pending Supreme Court action.
“We’re following it and making sure our level of education is at the point where, if and when it became legal and available, we would be in a position to pursue it,” LaBoy said. “It’s an opportunity that, if presented, would be looked at seriously. We’re in the gaming entertainment business, and we know that is a market segment that happens unlawfully at very high levels throughout the whole United States There’s a demand for that from the customer base.”
While the U.S. is moving closer to sports wagering, Fred Bertucca, deputy chief operations officer with the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, said legislation has died on the Senate floor and sports wagering won’t be seen in Canada “anytime soon.” The nation has been consumed by a debate on the introduction of cannabis, he said.
