The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) informed the state’s new licensed bookmakers this week that they will be permitted to offer bets on the Academy Awards, a first for legal sportsbooks in the United States. This has been a popular activity around offices and with offshore books for years, but has always been prohibited in Nevada.
More than a dozen legal sportsbooks have opened in New Jersey since last May. That’s when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal statute that had restricted state-authorized sports betting to primarily Nevada. In the first few months of operation, Garden State bookies said they routinely received requests from customers wanting betting on the Oscars. And now the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement has made it so.
Sportsbooks will be required to submit what wagers they plan to offer and what betting limits will be allowed to the NJDGE for approval.
The Oscars will be broadcast live Feb. 24, on ABC. We shall soon start to see the odds for who will win Best Picture. Exciting times in Jersey.