Atlantic City's Golden Nugget may be prevented from offering sports betting under proposed bill

The proposed bill would allow Golden Nugget Atlantic City to offer sports betting as long as owner Tilman Fertitta sold the NBA’s Houston Rockets within a year. If he did not, he would forfeit his sports-betting license, and all the money he made on sports betting during that time would have to be repaid to the state.

However, the bill would benefit Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa and three casinos owned by Caesars Entertainment, Press of Atlantic City reports.

Borgata owner MGM owns the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces. But under a clause in the bill, MGM would be approved because the team generates less than 1 percent of its total annual revenue.

Joshua Harris, who owns the Philadelphia 76ers and the New Jersey Devils, would get in under a clause allowing those who own less than 10 percent of a casino or gambling company to participate in sports betting. Harris’ Apollo Global Management owns a small percentage of Caesars Entertainment, which in turn owns Harrah’s Resort, Caesars Atlantic City and Bally’s Atlantic City.

State Senate President Steve Sweeney, a Democrat, said the bill was written that way to prevent anyone "from controlling both ends of the bet — owning the team and the company taking the bet."

"That’s something we’re just not comfortable with," Sweeney said.

Borgata has said it will begin offering sports betting on the first day state regulators permit. Borgata and MGM officials would not comment on the sports betting legislation as it affects the company’s basketball team.

Officials with Caesars Entertainment and Fertitta’s company in Houston did not return calls seeking comment Wednesday.

Hard Rock International’s 2016 stadium naming rights deal with the Miami Dolphins of the NFL may also restrict what kind of sports betting its Atlantic City casino, scheduled to open June 28, will offer. Hard Rock Chairman and CEO Jim Allen acknowledged “certain restrictions” in testimony before the Casino Control Commission, though he did not go into details.

The bill, up for final votes in the state Senate and Assembly on Thursday, would allow New Jersey casinos and racetracks to accept sports bets.

It would set the sports betting tax rate for casinos at 8.5 percent, with an additional 1.25 percent payment to help market Atlantic City. The 1.25 percent add-on fee for tracks would be split among the host community and the county in which the track operates. Internet bets would be taxed at 13 percent.

New Jersey last month won a U.S. Supreme Court case overturning a federal law that limited sports betting to only four states. States are now free to pass laws legalizing gambling.