EAST RUTHERFORD – It was beyond disingenuous that National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman was at the FanDuel Sportsbook at the New Meadowlands Racetrack on Monday to announce that the league was getting into the sports betting business in the state, making FanDuel the league's official daily fantasy and sports betting partner, with the New Jersey Devils having a tie-in as well.

It's a 180 turn for the NHL on sports betting.

Consider that the NHL was part of "the leagues" -- the four major professional sports leagues, plus the NCAA -- which for six years funded legal efforts to thwart New Jersey’s bit to legalize sports wagering in the state, claiming it would be the ruination of sports as we know it by messing with the "integrity" of the games.

And now, after costing New Jersey taxpayers millions of dollars, both in legal fees and years of lost tax revenues and jobs by conspiring to put off the inevitable, Bettman and the NHL have decided they want a piece of the action.

"I'm not going to get into a debate about the lawsuit. It's ancient history," said Bettman about the league's suddenly shifting stance, indicating his concerns never centered on the integrity of the game.

"If you check what I've said, my concerns were, one, would it change the environment at games themselves, and two, what would it do to the position of athletes as role models as opposed to devices for betting. But those concerns whether or not they're legitimate were irrelevant once the Supreme Court ruled. And so now we needed to embrace and move forward."

So we did a little fact-checking, and what Bettman actually swore to in court is a little different.

"The proposition of expanded, government-sanctioned sports gambling threatens to

compromise the NHL's reputation and integrity, and undermines fans' trust and

confidence in honest competition," Bettman said in a 2012 deposition in litigation of the New Jersey sports betting case. "The NHL may be subject to allegations that its game is not completely legitimate, including charges of 'point-shaving' and fake injuries.

"By making sports gambling a widespread institution tied to the outcomes of NHL

games, the very nature of the sport is likely to change for the worse."

The NHL's new deal proves it’s always been about the money, and now everyone’s lining up to get their share. But shouldn't the state get paid back what the NHL cost it?

Don’t get me wrong. The type of deal that was announced at Monday’s press conference is what should be happening now, driving the sports betting model as the industry matures in the state. Of the five states where sports betting is currently permitted, New Jersey has the fastest growing market of all, with $336.6 million wagered between June 14, when sports betting began in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court declaring the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act unconstitutional, and Sept. 30.

But you can’t just ignore how we got to this point. And the numbers produced so far hammer home just how much the state lost.

In June, attorneys for the New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, which operates Monmouth Park and was a driving force behind the seven-year legal fight that ended with the Supreme Court ruling, filed a motion in federal court in Trenton seeking $150 million in damages.

The suit covers the time period from Oct. 26, 2014, when the leagues successfully got a temporary restraining order to stop Monmouth Park from accepting bets on NFL games, until the Supreme Court ruling on May 18, 2018. It alleges the leagues acted in bad faith by claiming sports betting would hurt the integrity of sports, all while taking equity positions in fantasy sports operators like FanDuel, and relocating teams to Las Vegas, where sports betting is legal.

NJ sports betting: Nearly $184 million wagered in September

NJ sports betting: Monmouth Park bid for $150 million-plus in damages moves forward

So doing a little quick math based on Monmouth Park’s slice of the current sports betting pie being roughly 15 percent, that would put the state’s losses at around $1 billion during that 42 month period. So the NHL’s share of the bill for the damages is around $200 million.

We'll take cash, a check, whatever.

They certainly see New Jersey as a cash cow right now. The Devils/FanDuel deal comes just a week after the Devils cut a deal with betting giant William Hill to put a sports book style lounge in the Prudential Center.

Among the more laughable moments from the press conference came when Bettman said, ``A lot of people in the last few months have said they don’t understand my conversion because the perception was that we were the most anti-sports betting and gambling. But I pointed out to a number of people that we were the first sports league to put a team in Las Vegas.''

That's right. And even after the team was in Las Vegas the legal fight to stop New Jersey continued.

So now everyone is all-in on sports betting, and that's a great thing for New Jersey. The shame of it all is that it took the almighty dollar to get everyone on the same page.

Stephen Edelson is a USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey columnist: sedelson@gannettnj.com