Lawmakers in New Jersey are considering increasing penalties for sportsbooks and casinos offering prohibited bets. Those are bets on prohibited events such as college teams from the state. On Thursday, a bill that cleared an Assembly Panel showed that fines could climb 10 times higher than the one which was handed out in 2018 for prohibited bets. Read on for more.
ABOUT THE HARSHER PENALTIES
In late January this year, Assemblyman Ralf Caputo introduced Assembly Bill 4947 which this week passed the Assembly Tourism, Gaming and the Arts Committee. The act will lift sanctions on sportsbooks and casinos which are found in violation of the sports betting law in New Jersey.
“We must provide the proper and necessary oversight to ensure that our state’s holders of sports wagering licenses abide by the laws set forth,” declared Caputo. We want New Jersey’s sports and race gaming industry to succeed, and in order for us to do this, we must guarantee that everyone plays fairly by the rules and that if people break those rules, they are punished accordingly.”
The lawmakers call for fines of between $20 000 to $100 000 for such law violations. More so, in addition to the fine, casinos and sportsbooks would have to pay an amount equal to the total amount of prohibited bets that they accepted, and face a licence suspension of up to 10 days.
NEW JERSEY GAMBLING LAWS & PROHIBITED BETS
Wagers on college teams from the state are prohibited in New Jersey, this disregards where the match is played. NJ also prohibits wagers on events such as high school athletics, competitive video games and esports.
Caesars Entertainment and the Golden Nugget were once penalized for taking such bets last fall. Caesars was fined $2 000 in September for taking bets on a Rutgers-Kansas football game, meanwhile Golden Nugget was fined $390 for taking wagers on numerous college games involving NJ sports teams.
Either the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement or New Jersey Racing Commission will be responsible for imposing the fines depending where the offence happened; at a casino or racetrack.
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