Sports Leagues Claim New Jersey Sportsbetting Unfair

This story was published more than 11 years ago.

The five major sports leagues in the United States have answered the state of New Jersey's attempt to have their lawsuit against the Garden State dismissed, claiming that the state's sports betting law is unfair because it bars New Jersey based college sports, but allows all other college and sports bets.

Responding to New Jersey's dismissal motion, the NCAA, MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL's lawyers claimed that:

"Notwithstanding defendants' insistence that the state's gambling scheme will have no adverse effect on the sports organizations, the state has exempted the sporting events of its own college and university teams, as well as all collegiate sporting events held within New Jersey, from the very gambling that defendants now insist will cause no injury," the sports leagues claimed in their most recent submission to a U.S. District Court on Monday."

"Nowhere in their brief do defendants attempt to explain why New Jersey has singled out its own teams and sporting events for protection from injuries that purportedly do not exist."

The proposal that was signed into law by Republican Governor Chris Christie would limit sports betting to Atlantic City casinos and state horse racing tracks. New Jersey's gambling industry has been hit hard recently by competition in neighboring states, and many believe that sports betting would give a healthy return to the shore casinos.

Responding to the leagues' collective response, an attorney for the state said: "The leagues' complaint alleges no facts that would suggest that this nearly half-trillion-dollar pre-existing industry has harmed the reputation or goodwill of the leagues. Given that, there is no reason to believe that sports wagering in New Jersey will cause harm to the leagues ever."