iMEGA Files Suit Over Sportsbetting Ban

In America, the Interactive Media Entertainment And Gaming Association (iMEGA) has filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn a Federal law that bans sportsbetting in New Jersey and most other states.

According to a report from the Reuters news service, iMEGA’s suit claims that the Federal Government’s Professional And Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 violates five amendments to the US Constitution by discriminating against the people of New Jersey and by regulating a matter that should be reserved to the states.

The action was filed in US District Court District of New Jersey on behalf of iMEGA alongside the New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association, The Thoroughbred Breeders Association Of New Jersey and the Standardbred Breeder And Owners Association Of New Jersey. New Jersey State Senator Raymond Lesniak is also serving as a plaintiff and stated that the law deprives his state of millions of dollars in tax revenues with income from the legitimate gaming industry going instead to offshore Internet operations, backroom bookmakers and organised crime.

'This Federal law deprives the State of New Jersey of over $100 million of yearly revenues as well as depriving our casinos, racetracks and Internet operators of over $500 million in gross income,' said Democrat Lesniak.

Gaming is an important industry in New Jersey, with eleven casinos in Atlantic City and Governor Jon Corzine recently telling reporters that an initiative to legalise sportsbetting was ‘worth pursuing’.

iMEGA asserts that the law violates the commerce clause of the Constitution by failing to impose uniform standards throughout the country because it allows sportsbetting in Nevada, Delaware, Montana and Oregon, states where the practice was already in place before the legislation’s passage. Of those four states, only Nevada, which is home to a large gaming industry, has implemented sportsbetting.