Just a few days ago we reported that sports betting is still not live in the state of New Jersey despite the new directive by Governor Chris Christie. Operators seem timid about offering the option until US District Judge Michael Shipp rules on the subject in October. It has now been reported that two lawmakers in the state of New Jersey are now proposing a tax on all sports wagers in the state.
A NJ Senator and Assemblyman have proposed a tax of 0.25% on all sports wagers that would take place in the state and the money generated would be used to help prevent corruption such as game fixing. According to CardPlayer, State Assemblyman Vincent Mazzeo and Senator Jim Whelan penned a letter that was dated from this past Monday that stated funds from the tax could go to the Game Integrity Department of each sporting league that decides to create one.
The idea may be a good one, but as pointed out in the article, with no regulation in place, it may be difficult to enforce the proposed fees. In the letter, sent to Adam Silver the Commissioner of the NBA, the lawmakers thanked his for comments made on sports betting as inevitable and about how sports leagues could find a way to benefit with the option.
The letter stated that while they believe the sports betting leagues such as the NBA will need the resources to protect the integrity and the fairness of every game. With the tax, Whelan and Mazzeo suggest that independent investigators could be hired as well as monitors for each game. The two believe that their ideas could be a national model for the sports betting industry. During the discussions, Whelan stated that the sports betting tax would have to be done with agreements made between the wagering providers and the sports leagues since legislation is not in place.
Whelan stated: “The position of the state right now is we’re not doing anything with sports betting, the short version. So for us to do it could be construed as a tax and the state is empowering and so on and so forth. This is what we see as a good faith common sense solution to this challenge of trying to have sports betting in New Jersey but literally across the country. If we’re fortunate enough to get it, it’s not going to stop here.”
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