NJ voters to weigh in on legalized sports betting

New Jersey voters will be able to decide next year whether they want to legally bet on sports games as a result of action taken Monday by the state Legislature.

Votes in the state Senate and Assembly guaranteed that a referendum will appear on the November ballot asking voters whether they want to amend New Jersey’s constitution by legalizing sports betting in the state.

Even if voters say yes, a federal ban on sports betting in all but four states would have to be repealed or overturned.

A 1992 federal law restricts sports betting to the four states that met a deadline to sign up for it: Nevada, where Las Vegas sports books determine the odds for sporting events across the country; Delaware; Montana; and Oregon. Montana and Oregon don’t offer sports betting now.

The law carved out a special exemption for New Jersey, giving it a chance to decide if it wanted legal sports betting. But the state failed to enact a law that would have done so, and the exemption window closed.