New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced last week in Atlantic City that he will defy a federal ban on sports gambling and that he hopes to let New Jersey residents legally bet on sporting events by fall of this year.
His chances of success seem slim: back in 2009, Delaware failed in a similar legal push to overcome the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which bans sports betting in all but four states. Nonetheless, Christie’s outspokenness has reinvigorated national debate on the topic.
So, sports gambling: should it be legal? Joe Nocera is an op-ed columnist for our partner The New York Times, and Dan Wetzel is a columnist for Yahoo! Sports.