History of Gambling in New Jersey

The Garden State, boasting almost 13 miles of beachfront views of the shimmering Atlantic Ocean, welcomes more than 114 million visitors annually. Among the reasons for its immense popularity as a tourist destination are its incredible boardwalks and, of course, that it is home to the famous Atlantic City.

Known as the second-largest gambling hub in the US (behind the legendary Las Vegas), Atlantic City is home to some of the top casinos operated by major gambling brands. Many of these are the same brands that operate venues in Sin City and all over the world.

Photo by Cleyton Ewerton on Unsplash

While gamblers in the state have a slew of opportunities available to them, both in A.C. and online, gambling was not always as easy to access as it is today. The state has a long history of battles with the law that have helped it get to where it is today. 

Early Gambling

Gambling in New Jersey dates back as far as the early 1800s. At the time, the main legal form of gambling was state-held lotteries. These had a massive base of players, and the money received from them helped finance projects like the establishment of Princeton University (originally called the University of New Jersey). Aside from lotteries, harness racing bets were also quite popular, although their legality was questionable.

In 1844, however, lotteries were banned, and by 1894, all forms of gambling in the state were outlawed. This wasn’t unique to the state; gambling was generally frowned upon and prohibited in most of the country.

In 1931, Las Vegas became the first place to legally allow all forms of the pastime. New Jersey wasn’t far behind, with racetrack betting given the greenlight in 1939. This was the only legal form of gambling permitted until 1969.

That year, a whopping 81.5% of residents in the Garden State voted in favor of allowing lotteries to once again take place. In December, the first lottery ticket for the new, legal lottery was sold—kickstarting a strong history of the lotto in the state.

In 1974, voters again took to the polls to legalize casinos in the region. However, things were put on hold because the majority voted against it. Two years later, in 1976, the same vote was held. This time, voters polled in favor of legalizing casinos, on the condition that they were all built and operated within Atlantic City.

By 1978, just two years after the prohibition on casinos was lifted, the first one (Resorts Atlantic City) opened its doors. This led to an influx of operators looking to take advantage of the demand for quality gambling establishments in the state.

Gambling Expansion

With Atlantic City becoming a new gambling hub in the country—Vegas and Reno being the only other notable mentions—there was little activity related to the local gambling laws for quite a few years.

In 2006, however, due to a disagreement between the local government and the state governor regarding these laws, the latter ordered a shutdown of all casinos and racetracks in the state. The laws declared that casinos may only operate under the supervision of the government, namely the New Jersey Casino Control Commission.

Just eight days later, the shutdown was lifted, and gamblers welcomed the return of casinos and all forms of betting. However, the damage to the industry had already been done. By 2019, gambling in the city had still not returned to its pre-shutdown levels, and the situation only worsened during the pandemic. That said, Atlantic City remains a popular place to gamble.

Online Casinos and the Current Gambling Scene

Despite Atlantic City’s challenges, many other massive developments took place over the years. The most important occurred between 2011 and 2013 and helped shape the face of gambling in the state from then on.

These changes began with a bill drafted to allow residents access to online casinos. Navigating BetMGM online casino offerings in NJ and finding the best casino games would all be allowable under the bill on one condition—the servers for any online casino in the state needed to be located within one of the physical casinos in Atlantic City.

After almost two years of fighting legal requirements, a revision of the law was proposed in February 2013 that received an overwhelming number of votes in favor, and the bill was passed.

One more development took place at the same time. After a vote in 2011, sports betting was officially legalized in January 2012.

However, shortly after the legalization, the NCAA, NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL all took the state to court, citing that allowing sports betting infringed on the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992.

A year later, in 2013, the court sided with the sporting bodies and declared that the state had to prohibit sports betting again. Frustrated, the state government challenged the ruling but made little headway until June 2017, when the Supreme Court saw the court case.

In May 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 was unconstitutional and that each state could set its own laws regarding sports betting. The historic ruling not only resulted in the legalization of sports betting, which was signed into NJ law just one month later, but also revolutionized the gambling scene across the United States.

Conclusion

Gambling has had a rough history in New Jersey due to various arguments over legalities and government shutdowns. However, the industry has prevailed, and today, it rakes in revenue of over $5.2 billion annually.

Nowadays, New Jersey has some of the least restrictive laws surrounding this popular pastime and welcomes new market entries. All this goes toward aiding players to try their luck at some of the best physical casinos in the country, as well as the incredible online ones that help contribute to the massive international industry.