Can bars, restaurants or other licensed establishments run betting pools for sporting events such as the Super Bowl?
As a general rule, neither gambling nor gambling paraphernalia is permitted on a licensed premises. Those games or activities, however, which are licensed under the New Jersey law dealing with bingo, raffles or lotteries may be conducted on a licensed premises.
Any other unlicensed game or activity, where chance and not skill is the primary element and a person pays money or anything else of value in the hope or expectation of winning money, a prize or some other valuable thing, is prohibited. This prohibition does not apply to the holding of a tournament, such as darts or bowling, where skill, and not chance, is the determining factor.
The Division has found that “football pools,” “sport pools” and "super bowl pools” constitute gambling and are, therefore, prohibited on the licensed premises.
