New Jersey Again Tells Trump Administration To Stay Away From Online Gambling Industry

The Garden State is doubling down on its opposition to the threat of a federal crackdown on regulated internet betting.

In a letter sent last week to the U.S. Department of Justice, members of Congress from New Jersey urged the Trump Administration not to reverse an Obama-era policy that allowed for states to venture into online betting. The letter further cements New Jersey’s defense against federal involvement in its betting industry.

The note came a day before New Jersey gaming regulators announced that the state’s regulated online casinos generated nearly $250 million in revenue last year, helping propel Atlantic City to another year-over-year revenue uptick.

In the letter, signed by New Jersey’s two U.S. Senators, online gambling was credited with the “rebirth of Atlantic City.” The New Jersey Congressional delegation said that the growth in revenue “is in large part due to significant capital investments by the state in online gaming facilities, equipment, and technology that makes online gaming safe and secure.”

In November, just a few weeks after Pennsylvania became the fourth state in the nation to legalize online casino gambling, Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) put forward a letter urging the DoJ to reverse the Obama-era legal opinion.

Just a handful of weeks before the Graham-Feinstein letter, New Jersey said that it had inked a deal to soon share online poker players with Nevada and Delaware, the only other states with regulated internet casino games.

New Jersey has seven brick-and-mortar casinos and 23 online gambling portals.