That's because the debate is over a form of gambling -- betting on the outcome of sporting events -- offered only in Nevada. And New Jersey's chance to approve sports betting came and went years ago.

The 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, sponsored by New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley, banned sports wagering in the 47 states where it was not then legal.

Nevada got an exemption. So did Oregon, which allows betting on pro football through a lottery. Delaware got an exemption because voters approved a 1976 referendum, but the state never adopted sports betting.

New Jersey, meanwhile, was given a one-year window to decide whether to sanction sports gambling in Atlantic City. Some lawmakers in Trenton saw in sports betting a chance to close a deficit in the casino revenue fund, which financed programs for the elderly and disabled.

Legislation was introduced to permit sports betting only on professional teams, and only at Atlantic City casinos. Needed in both houses of the legislature was a three-fifths vote of approval, which would have set up a statewide referendum on changing the state constitution to permit sports betting.

Opponents of sports betting, including Bradley and Bergen County Executive Pat Schuber, fought the legislation by forming the New Jersey Coalition to Ban State-Sponsored Sports Betting.

The Senate passed the legislation, but it stalled in the Assembly. Casino proponents made a last-ditch plea to the state Casino Control Commission, but the state Supreme Court ruled that the commission did not have the authority to authorize sports betting.

Wallace Barr, chairman of the Casino Association of New Jersey, said Atlantic City casinos still would like to offer sports betting but realize that the chance to do so "effective died" when the Legislature failed to act in 1993.

A member of the House at the time of the debate, Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., urged state lawmakers to approve sports betting when they had the chance. He later pledged to try to overturn the 1992 federal law that bars new states from approving sports betting. But there have been no efforts in Congress to overturn the ban.

To the contrary, Congress is now weighing an effort to tighten the ban on sports betting by outlawing bets on college sports, even in Nevada where it currently is legal. On Thursday, the Senate Commerce Committee endorsed the proposal, advancing the legislation to the full Senate.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the chairman of the Commerce Committee and a leading force behind the legislation, has said repeatedly that it's time to close the "Las Vegas loophole" that exempted Nevada from the 1992 sports betting ban.

But Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., reminded the committee that Nevada was not the only state to get the chance to offer sports betting. New Jersey was given the opportunity but declined, he said.

Still, Bryan lost his battle to derail the legislation on amateur sports betting, leaving him to accuse his colleagues of "trying to give Nevada the shaft."