California may benefit from legalizing sports betting

Reporting from Sacramento — Los Angeles gamblers may have bet big on their Lakers winning the NBA championship, but they could not do it legally in California, and the cash-strapped state did not get a piece of the action.

What if Californians could place such bets in the future without having to drive to Vegas or break the law by calling the local bookie? A state legislator who wants to legalize Internet poker says California should consider sanctioning sports betting too to help fill government coffers.

State Senator Roderick Wright, who chairs the committee that oversees gambling, supports a lawsuit filed by New Jersey officials challenging federal law that limits sports betting to Nevada and a few other states. Wright said he might ask the Legislature to join the suit. "If you took the sports book in Nevada and other places, it's a pretty healthy piece of money, and we currently don't get squat,'' he added. "I don't know how much longer we can afford to basically be providing the revenue to all these other states from California people.''

Under California law, it is a misdemeanor to bet on a sporting event. And the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act prohibits the state from sanctioning sports betting, according to Whittier Law School professor I. Nelson Rose, an expert on gambling law.

The lawsuit by New Jersey argues that the 1992 federal law violates the U.S. Constitution by allowing betting in some states but not others. Rose said the law has "major constitutional problems.''

On Wednesday, federal legislation that would legalize some Internet gambling in the U.S. was approved by the House Financial Services Committee. The measure, which gambling interests hope can pave the way for legal sports betting, would allow online poker bets with firms licensed by the U.S. Treasury Department.

It is widely estimated that more than us$ 100 billion are wagered in the U.S., legally and illegally, on sporting events each year, according to Marc Lefkowitz, an expert at the UCLA Gambling Studies Program.

About us$ 2.6 billion are bet on sports legally in Nevada, and the state takes a share with a tax on the profits of casinos where the betting occurs, according to Frank Streshley, a senior research analyst for the Nevada Gaming Commission. Last year, the tax brought in more than us$ 9 million, he said.