Sports Betting : If a survey on sports betting is approved by New Jersey voters on Nov. 8, state lawmakers plan to begin work the next day on enabling legislation and rules in anticipation that a federal ban is lifted or overturned in the courts.

Nevada and three other states presently have exemptions from the prohibition on sports wagering.

State Sen. Jim Whelan, D-Atlantic, head of the Senate State Government and Wagering Committee, said the poll approval coupled with legislation “that protects the public’s interest’’ will put New Jersey next in line to cash in on sports betting if the ban is lifted or overturned in the courts.

“My aim is if the referendum passes Nov. 8, we start crafting the legislation Nov. 9,” Whelan told other politicians when the committee met Monday.

Polls show wide support for the legal amendment that would authorize the Legislature to allow wagering on sports events over bets placed with Atlantic City casinos and horse racetracks.

Horse racing betting officials, after seeing subsidies for their sport dry up over the past year at Gov. Chris Christie’s direction, attended the range in droves, saying they look forward to having a slice of the new revenue.

Sports betting’s control is estimated at $217 million annually, Adam Ozimek from Econsult Corp. an economics consulting firm in Philadelphia, told the committee.

Ozimek said the figure signifies only online sports betting and said “the true number would be higher than that.”

Ozimek also said sports betting could create “1,600 new direct and secondary jobs.”

The estimates sounded pretty good to Tom Luchento, president of the Standardbred Breeders and Owners Association of New Jersey, who noted that horse racing has been hobbled by reduced political support.

THE AFL has been pulled into a new gambling dispute with a sports betting operator to face charges for offering inducements worth thousands of dollars to open betting accounts over two AFL-club linked betting websites. 

The Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation has confirmed it will chase charges against Betezy a sports betting operator that has partnerships with six AFL clubs in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on October 13. 

''The charges left down by the VCGR against Betezy Pty Ltd, and currently before the Melbourne Magistrates Court are that Betezy Pty Ltd apparently offered an inducement of $200 and up to $2500 in free bets to an account holder if they mentioned a friend,'' executive commissioner Jane Brockington said in a declaration. 

''The representation was made via a flyer endorsing the websites.'' A Betezy website advancement also says, ''refer a friend and receive $200, $50 cash upfront and $150 in free bets''.

At least three other sports betting hands have also faced charges in the past year for offering incentives to open an account. 

Online betting agencies have also been offering encouragements to account holders that have not made a wager in several months to get them betting again. 

Betezy general manager Ryan Kay said he was staggered by the charges. 

''It's a extraordinary one. We did not actually give an stimulus to the person, we have a referral program, so anyone who refers a friend we give them a little free bet bonus and they are saying that's an stimulus. It is a little bit of a grey one. I can't believe they are taking it to the subsequent level,'' he said. 

The charges come amid ongoing distress about the level of regulation and scrutiny of sporting betting operators taking bets in Victoria with all but two operators licensed interstate.

The man who founded and ran the online sports gambling action BetOnSports entreated guilty and agreed to forfeit more than $43 million in proceeds, prosecutors announced Friday.

Gary Kaplan, 50, arrived a guilty plea to conspiracy and violating wagering laws in federal court in St. Louis, Missouri, authorities said. Justice Department officials said Kaplan last week had wired the entire forfeited amount from his Swiss bank account to the court.

"Today's shamefaced plea should have a lasting effect because Kaplan was not only the founder of BetOnSports, he was also one of the pioneers of banned online gambling," said John V. Gillies, special agent in charge of the FBI office in St. Louis.

Kaplan's Costa Rica based BetOnSports operation had nearly a million customers from the United States and other countries who bet more than a billion dollars, law administration officials said.

Under the plea contract, Kaplan will be sentenced to between 41 and 51 months in prison when he goes before a judge on October 27. He has been held without bond as he was arrested in March 2007

France plans to open its online betting market at the start of 2010, rendering to a new bill presented by budget minister Eric Woerth. 

Presently, the country's online gambling market is ruled by Francaise des Jeux's lottery and sports betting and PMU's horse race betting, but an estimated 75 percent of online gambling in the country is done at illegal websites from around the world. 

From 1 January 2010, online gambling will be permitted in three areas, horse racing, sports and poker. Arjel, the new online gambling official, will award five year renewable licences to private operators. The state will tax horse racing betting and sports bets at 7.5 percent and poker at 2 percent. 

The bill will be obtainable to the cabinet by early April and is expected to be approved by parliament before the summer holidays, according to the minister.

In what seems to be the biggest online gambling heist in China, a Shanghai court has punished 20 people for running an illegal online sports betting website, it was reported today. 

The leaders of the illegal sports betting enterprise, Qian Baochun, got the heavier end of the stick with the biggest sentence 6 years in jail plus fines for creating the online gambling website. 

His nineteen assistants received smaller jail judgments. According to Chinese authorities, the gambling website, which accessible online betting on European football matches, was fashioned in time for the 2006 World Cup and has generated over $1 billion in bets since. 

Gambling in any way is illegal in mainland China, with the exception of the state run lottery style sports betting, which also offers betting on football games. 

Meanwhile the reserve of Macau, which is part of China, has become the world's largest gambling destination. 

China is also seeing allowing some form of betting on horse racing, although the possibility of full-fledged horse racing betting is years away.