New Jersey Pushes to Allow Betting on College Teams
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00:00All right, let's get to New Jersey and, you know, obviously the update there is, you know,
00:08college sports is coming.
00:09Sam, we're less than two months away from the beginning of the college football season.
00:13And I know yesterday we talked a little bit on the show, maybe you can expand about the
00:16possibility of New Jersey getting college sports back on their sports betting apps again.
00:22Yeah, Assemblyman Michael Venezia introduced a constitutional amendment last week that
00:28would allow people in New Jersey to bet on New Jersey college teams.
00:33New Jersey, one of the handful of states where, you know, you can't bet on the in-state teams,
00:37much to, you know, people's aggravation in the state.
00:40If you recall, the restriction a few years ago prevented a lot of action on St. Peter's
00:44when it made its Cinderella run to the elite eight in March Madness.
00:48It actually, the scenario caused bettors who picked North Carolina to win the East region
00:54to get paid out before the final game was even played because you couldn't, you know,
00:58if you couldn't have bet on St. Peter's, so North Carolina would have been the farthest
01:02that that team had won.
01:03I mean, North Carolina did actually end up winning.
01:05So it avoided a really weird scenario where let's say St. Peter's won the whole thing.
01:10If you had bet on the opposing team that they played in the final to win it all, you would
01:15have made money on them if you're in New Jersey.
01:17So there's now another push in New Jersey to, you know, basically repeal this.
01:22It's not this assemblyman's first try a few years ago.
01:26He was behind or part of rather this push for another constitutional amendment, which
01:32was actually rejected by the state, about 57% of the people in New Jersey that voted
01:37at the polls voted against it.
01:39So you have to think like, will they be successful this time?
01:43Will it take another push?
01:44And multiple sports books have struggled as well with this rule getting fined for, you
01:50know, mistakenly leaving open markets that they probably shouldn't have.
01:53So you have to think the industry is rooting behind this.
01:56More betting is always good for the industry.
01:58They will also argue that a lot of it happens offshore.
02:02You know, more betting is essentially just good for the industry.
02:04So they're going to be behind this as well.
02:06But the legislature is one of the few that are still in session right now.
02:10So obviously they're off for the July 4th holiday.
02:13We'll see if this becomes a priority afterwards.
02:16If a state like New Jersey, which quite frankly is pretty prominent in sports betting policy,
02:21when they make a big decision or big move, people tend to follow, people tend to listen.
02:25So if they get this done, it would be huge for the state, huge for the sports books and
02:29potentially could spread to other states and reverse a trend that we've seen, you know,
02:35with more and more crackdowns, less, less bets people want to have on college players.
02:40It could be a good thing overall, if you're bullish on the industry.