Caveat Vendor

Sports Bettors Can Start Fantasizing: New Jersey to Allow Fantasy Sports Betting at Casinos

March 20, 2013

Katie Sheridan

The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) announced yesterday the temporary adoption of regulations permitting Atlantic City casinos to offer fantasy sports tournaments. The regulations will take effect on April 22 and will remain in effect for 270 days, during which time the Division will follow procedures to adopt them formally. Casinos, alone or in conjunction with other fantasy sports providers, will be able to accept entry fees and pay out winnings or prizes through their casino cages but must restrict participation to those 21 years of age or over.

The new regulations are necessary to allow casinos to conduct fantasy wagering on their premises, though nothing prohibits them from also offering fantasy tournaments online. Importantly, the new regulations assert that fantasy sports tournaments will not be considered “gaming” or “gambling” under state law. This appears to put New Jersey regulators on record as implicitly acknowledging that non-casino licensees may continue to offer fantasy sports in the state without restriction.

Interestingly, the regulations also place no restrictions on “single-day” fantasy contests – where participants enter contests that last for a single day’s set of games. Those types of contests have been the subject of ongoing litigation in federal court in Illinois, where private plaintiffs are alleging it is a form of gambling.

The fantasy regulations follow New Jersey’s recent attempt to permit real sports betting at race tracks and in Atlantic City. On February 28, a federal judge upheld the constitutionality of the federal ban on state-authorized sports betting. (The ban exempts Nevada and, to a limited extent, Delaware, Montana and Oregon from its proscriptions.) New Jersey has announced that it intends to appeal this ruling.

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