New Jersey calls on Trump to oppose online gaming ban
The New Jersey General Assembly has issued a resolution to urge newly sworn-in US President Donald Trump to oppose efforts to reintroduce a ban on online gambling in the country.
New Jersey is just one of three states that currently offer some form of legalised internet gaming in the US, along with Nevada and Delaware, although a host of other states are said to be considering regulating such services.
This form of regulation has been allowed since 2011, when the US Department of Justice ruled that individual states could legalise online gaming within their own borders.
However, this decision was made under the government of former president Barack Obama, and those opposed to internet gaming have called on Trump to return to the previous structure, whereby a blanket ban would be reintroduced.
New Jersey has now moved to discourage such actions with the resolution, which will be sent on to Trump as an official legislative piece.
The resolution said: “Recent measures in Congress, if pursued by the new Congress and supported by the President and his administration, would prohibit the transmission by wire communication of any bet or wager or of information assisting in the placement of any bet or wager, including internet gaming.
“In his confirmation hearing as nominee for US Attorney General, Senator Jeff Sessions indicated his desire to revisit the federal Justice Department ruling that currently allows the states to authorise internet gaming.
“These measures and actions would invalidate New Jersey’s implementation of internet gaming, which the state authorised in 2013 to be conducted by Atlantic City casinos in partnership with their internet gaming affiliates and under strict regulation and control by the State’s Division of Gaming Enforcement.
“A federal prohibition against internet gaming would directly and negatively impact New Jersey by dismantling the investments that the state and Atlantic City casinos have already made to implement and regulate internet gaming, taking away the economic and employment opportunities already realised by the state and its residents, and foreclosing the future potential of internet gaming to generate tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue, create high-tech software jobs, and foster valuable business ventures for Atlantic City casinos in this state.”
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