Coming this fall, Atlantic City could allow patrons to bet on the outcomes of football, basketball and other sporting events, Gov. Chris Christie said Thursday.

This is the latest initiative in a series of efforts to revive Atlantic City’s sluggish economy.  However, the first casino to take the leap with the Governor remains to be unseen - Properties don’t want to risk their license to operate.

“It’s going to be hard to find someone willing to take the first jump. Particularly for companies that do business in multiple jurisdictions, they might not want to jeopardize their licenses in other states.” Robert Griffin, CEO of Trump...

The Governor seems to be playing a game of chicken with the US Justice Department on this…

"We intend to go forward," the Republican governor said. "If someone wants to stop us, then let them try to stop us. We want to work with the casinos and horse racing industry to get it implemented.

"Am I expecting there may be legal action taken against us to try to prevent it? Yes," the governor said. "But I have every confidence we're going to be successful." Gov. Chris Christie

Too early to tell, but this proposal would absolutely help AC get back some of the lost business to PA casinos since they opened their doors.  It may even help grow the overall pie for the gaming industry in general by providing a new source of revenue from a huge pool of money that now flows untaxed to unlicensed offshore Internet sites or to illegal bookmakers, many of whom are allied with organized crime.

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http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/7970130/new-jersey-defy-federal-law-move-forward-sports-betting