At the end of last week, the New Jersey Senate voted in favour of the state’s Daily Fantasy Sports Bill, which would make daily fantasy sports legal on the territory of the state. The bill, called A-3532, is focused on making legal daily fantasy sports in the state of New Jersey, is now waiting for the approval of the Governor Chris Christie.
The piece of legislation was first approved by the state’s Assembly in May 2017. Now, the bill was given the green light with a vote of 29 to 6 from the State Senate.
In case that Governor Christie lays his signature under the piece of legislation, gaming operators who offer daily fantasy sports bill will be able to provide their services across New Jersey. Under the bill, such operators will also be required to pay an operational fee estimated to 10% of the daily fantasy sports gross revenue which the operator has generated over the quarter. The proceeds would be transferred to the general fund of the state.
According to the Office of Legislative Services, these fees could bring a revenue of about $6.6 million to the state on an annual basis.
What is more, the bill is to impose a number of conditions for players, with the latter required to be at least 18 years old in order to place bets on daily fantasy sports. In addition, it would give the right to some licensed racetracks and casinos to partner with operators who run daily fantasy sports on the territory of the state of New Jersey.
Still, there are some restrictions. In case that a daily fantasy sports website is operated by a casino, the website servers are required to be located on the territory of Atlantic City. In case that the website is operated outside New Jersey, at least one of its servers needs to be located in Atlantic City.
In addition, the Daily Fantasy Sports bill will not provide users who have taken advantage of their self-exclusion right with the chance to bet on DFS. Also, DFS operators will also be prohibited to run games based on high school sports across the state.
The DFS bill comes as part of the measures taken by the state of New Jersey to increase the revenue generated by its casino and horse racing industries, which have lately been facing some difficulties. Earlier last week, the Supreme Court of the US has allowed the state to challenge the federal ban on sports betting across the US apart from the four states where such betting is already allowed.
Passing the A-3532 bill also marked another victory in the industry, as daily fantasy sports is finally categorised as a game of skill rather than game of luck. This basically means that daily fantasy sports operators will not be put under the control and regulation of the Division of Gaming Enforcement, but under the one of the state’s Division of Consumer Affairs.
- Author
Daniel Williams
