Current U.S. Senator and Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions of Alabama has stated that he would look into a 2011 opinion by the Obama administration’s Department of Justice in which individual states were left with the option of whether to legalize online gambling or not. One major concern is that a federal ban could put a full stop to the online gambling industry not only in New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware but also in other states that are looking at legalizing online gambling in some form.
The U.S. Department of Justice has interpreted a 1961 law differently within, and throughout various administrations in Washington D.C.
New Jersey Assemblyman Vincent Mazzeo recently sponsored a Joint Resolution that was adopted by the New Jersey General Assembly in which they asked President Trump and his administration to refrain from taking any measures that could hurt the existing situation in the online gambling industry. The Garden State was the last among the three states to regulate online gaming following the passing of a law 2013 that permitted iGaming within New Jersey’s borders. This enabled several casinos in Atlantic to go live and contribute towards the industry’s stable growth over the past three years.
According to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, there has been a 32.1% increase in revenue generated from online gambling and a tidy $29.5 million in tax being collected by the state. Mazzeo and other lawmakers in their Joint Resolution have pointed out that any ban on online gambling would lead to a decrease in the much-needed revenue and would virtually wipe out the efforts made towards regulation. They have also urged the Trump administration to veto any attempt to implement any ban.
Some industry experts fear that the Trump administration may not be in favor of online gambling although no one from the administration has voiced their opinion on it as yet. For the most part, the Republican Party’s financial backer, Sheldon Adelson, who is most vocal when it comes to opposing online gambling, is said to be close to Trump, which is why experts are wary about the administration’s next potential moves on the matter.