A New Jersey politician is pushing a bill that would make all in-play proposition sports bets illegal in the Garden State.
Rep. Dan Hutchison’s Bill A5971 would amend the state’s sports betting laws to prohibit licensed online sportsbooks from offering what it terms “micro bets.”
The language of the bill, viewed by SBC Americas, defines a “micro bet” as any proposition bet wagered live while a sports event is ongoing and which concerns the outcome of the next play or action. It defines a prop wager as a “side wager” which does not concern the final outcome of the event.
The bill cites the outcome of the next pitch in a baseball game or the next play in a football game as examples of the type of bet that it would ban.
Any operator or person who offered or accepted a micro bet as defined would be guilty of a disorderly persons offense and subject to a fine of between $500 and $1,000 per offense.
‘Commonsense’ fix to health risk?
The bill notes in its text that in-play prop betting is one of several new methods of wagering developed by sportsbooks in recent years, “which are more enticing and engaging for bettors, but additionally carry risks to the bettor’s health and well-being, and the integrity of sports more broadly.”
It asserts that the pace at which micro bets can be placed on sports limits bettors’ ability to “research and consider” their wagers before placing them and enables them to place a higher volume of bets in a shorter amount of time. That, it says, contributes to “excessive and irresponsible gambling” and can lead to problem gambling due to the possibility of near-immediate reward.
“The pace of micro betting is designed to keep people gambling constantly, making one impulsive bet after another with little time to think,” Hutchison said in a press release. “This bill is a commonsense step to slow that cycle down and protect individuals from the financial and emotional harms that can come with excessive betting.”
“People are constantly making bets, play after play after play, and there’s no let-up,” Hutchison added to New Jersey news outlet PIX11 this week.
New Jersey was the first U.S. state outside of Nevada to legalize online sports betting, doing so in June 2018, just one month after the repeal of PASPA. Since then, its market has grown exponentially and regulations have been tweaked.
But, as Hutchison put it to PIX11, live in-play betting is “a different type of gambling.”
How many athletes are wagering on sports?
The bill includes a note that the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey (CCGNJ) has reported a nearly 300% increase in calls to their problem gambling helpline since the legalization of sports wagering.
CCGNJ Prevention and Communications Specialist Daniel Meara told SBC Americas that the legislation is a priority issue for the Council.
“Microbetting is one of the most troubling forms of betting in the evolving gambling landscape in that these rapid-fire wagers can be an accelerant to problem gambling,” he added.
The text of the bill also cites data from studies that suggests that more than half of professional athletes may wager on sports, with roughly 8% being considered problem gamblers.
“This is not only concerning for the mental health of athletes, but also for the integrity of sports more broadly,” added the bill, claiming that micro bets concerning the outcome of one particular play or action are easier to fix than other forms of wagering.
“As a result, micro bets may be especially enticing to athletes who are already struggling with problem gambling. There have been several reported cases of professional athletes being investigated for altering their performance to meet the terms of wagers on a micro bet.”
MLB commissioner questions need for micro bets
The most recent of those probes concerns two Cleveland Guardians pitchers, Luis Ortiz and Emmanuel Clase. Reports suggest an unspecified sportsbook and monitoring firm IC360 flagged suspicious betting activity on certain Ortiz pitches in multiple games in June.
“There are certain types of bets that strike me as unnecessary and particularly vulnerable,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred told reporters recently.
“Things where it’s one single act don’t affect the outcome necessarily, we should continue to think about that,” he added. “Do we really need that last kind of bet?”
