- A bill has been introduced in New Jersey to ban micro betting in sports contests.
- Micro betting is when a player bets on the outcome of any individual play (for example, a ball or strike on a pitch in baseball).
TRENTON, N.J. – New Jersey legislators are looking to enhance regulation on sports betting in the state by introducing a bill to ban micro betting, a form of sports betting where players can wager on the outcome of any given play.
There was a public hearing for the bill recently held by the Assembly, Tourism, Gaming, and the Arts committee in which the board listened to an hour of testimony for and against the bill.
The bill was introduced by Assemblyman Dan Hutchinson, who cited excessive sports betting advertisements as one of the biggest factors in his decision.
“The Philadelphia media market has become the most heavily advertised media market in the nation for sportsbooks, with companies spending more than $37 million on ads between January and September. It feels impossible to escape,” said Hutchinson.
Argued As A Gambling Risk
The main argument against micro betting is the fast paced, rapid fire nature of the bets, which either hit or miss in an instant, allowing for players to rapidly place more and more bets.
Even those in favor of legal sports betting, such as Harry Levant, the Director of Gambling Policy at the Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern University School of Law, believe that micro betting poses a threat to people who may be vulnerable to gambling addiction.
Problem gambling prevention specialist Jean Swain is in favor of the bill as well, citing the ability of micro betting to hijack the brain’s reward system and rewire it to develop addictive habits.
Sports Betting Operators To Fight Back
Of course, sports betting operators argue against the bill, claiming that micro bets are actually a way to deter manipulation of games through players.
Representative Zachary Khan of the Sports Betting Alliance actually argued that micro betting is an essential piece of the process to ensure that games are being manipulated by the players or external factors.
There have been steps to limit micro betting, at least in the MLB, after a scandal involving pitchers from the Cleveland Guardians. Multiple legal betting sites in New Jersey have instituted a betting limit for individual MLB pitches in the aftermath of the scandal.
