Legalized gambling is going to get a ton of attention in 2012 with recent rulings on poker and lotteries. Now, with the recent developments in New Jersey regarding sports gambling, the entire issue is set to explode into a national conversation.

New Jersey’s inexorable march toward rectifying a two-decades-old mistake has taken a giant leap forward with a stroke of Gov. Chris Christie’s pen.

The governor’s signature Tuesday on legislation passed by New Jersey lawmakers positions the state for a legal challenge to the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which was spearheaded – ironically – by former N.J. Sen. Bill Bradley.

Legalized sport betting at casinos in Atlantic City as well as at four race tracks in the state is now a court decision away. Within weeks, or only as long as it takes to get the paperwork together, New Jersey is expected to file a challenge to PASPA. Supporters are optimistic that Atlantic City casinos will be able to open sportsbooks in time for the start of the 2012 NFL season in September.

“He (Christie) didn’t have much choice but to sign the bill,” I. Nelson Rose, one of the country’s leading gambling analysts and the author of the popular gamblingandthelaw.com blog, told Covers.com in an email shortly after the governor made it official. “Not after voters approved it 2-1 in November.”

The November referendum asked voters if they wanted to put the state on record as endorsing a court challenge to PASPA, and the vote showed that residents were eager to take on the fight. Enabling legislation sponsored by state Sen. Raymond Lesniak, a longtime advocate of the legalization of sports betting, cruised through the legislature, teeing it up for Christie.

This will be a fascinating debate as right now fans can do this online at sites like bwin but states want in on the action. States are looking for new revenues, so old sacred cows are now being attacked.

Also, it will be interesting to see what the NFL has to say about it with the New York Giants and New York Jets playing in New Jersey.