Christie admin. OKs sports betting, effective immediately

In a bid to help Atlantic City's ailing casino industry, the Christie administration issued a directive Monday declaring that New Jersey casinos and racetracks, effective today, may offer sports-betting pools to their patrons.

Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman's directive says that, effective Monday, there is nothing in New Jersey law that "prevents casinos and racetracks from operating a sports pool."

"I'm happy," said Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D., Union), a major proponent of sports betting. "The governor reversed course, and we're ready to go," he said.

Lesniak said he believes that every casino in Atlantic City will take advantage of the opportunity. "I've been saying that this will reboot Revel and Showboat," Lesniak said. Nearly 5,000 people lost their jobs when those two casinos closed over Labor Day weekend.

New Jersey voters in 2011 approved a plan to allow sports betting in the state, but the law implementing the plan was struck down by two federal courts. A plea for an appeal was not taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court this year.

The effort has faced stiff opposition from the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The tactic being used by New Jersey is similar to one used by states that have legalized marijuana.

For years, proponents of sports betting have said it could help save Atlantic City casinos, which have lost nearly half their revenue to surrounding states.

Spokeswomen for Caesars Entertainment Inc., which operates three Atlantic City casinos, and the Borgata, the city's most profitable casino, had no comment on the move by the Christie administration.

A. Jeff Ifrah, a gaming lawyer based in Washington said he did not expect Atlantic City casinos to start offering sports betting as long as a federal injunction remained in place from a federal court fight over New Jersey's Sports Wagering Act.

The bombshell by Christie came just a few days after National Basketball Commissioner Adam Silver, speaking at the Bloomberg Sports Business Summit in New York said he expected legal sports betting to spread around the county and that his league would profit from it.

Christie's directive relies on language in a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruling last September that upheld the federal prohibition on sports betting in most states and blocked New Jersey from implementing sports betting.

But the federal appeals court ruling did not interpret the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act to mean that New Jersey had to ban sports betting, according to Christie's directive.

Instead, the federal courts found that the licensing regime proposed by New Jersey's sports betting act violated federal law. Thus, what New Jersey had to do to comply with the federal ruling was to drop the licensing requirement at the same time as it voided its own prohibition on sports betting, New Jersey officials concluded.

Under the Christie directive, betting is still prohibited on college sports taking place in New Jersey and on games involving New Jersey colleges wherever they take place.

hbrubaker@phillynews.com

@InqBrubaker