New Jersey Sports Betting Appeal Case Headed to Supreme Court
New Jersey wants to legalize gambling on sports and will make its case before the Supreme Court. The high court said on Tuesday that it will take up the state’s challenge to a federal law that bans most states from legal sports betting. If New Jersey wins their appeal, lawyers predict that legal betting would spread to other states. The Supreme Court will hear the case during its next term in October.
New Jersey wants to overturn the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act known as PASPA. This ban on sports gambling was a national federal law in all but four states except Nevada, Delaware, Montana and Oregon.
Several major sports leagues are arguing that the law should be upheld, even though some executives, including NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, have recently stated support for regulated legal gambling in the next five years or sooner if possible. NJ Governor Chris Christie hopes legal sports betting can help the New Jersey economy, particularly the Atlantic City casinos which need the revenue and visitors to boost the area.
Lower courts ruled against New Jersey and lawyers for the Trump administration urged the Supreme Court not to take up the appeal. If New Jersey prevails, “it could and will open up the floodgates nationally for sports betting,” said Daniel Wallach, a lawyer with the firm Becker and Poliakoff who specializes in sports and gaming law and is not involved in the case.
The whole metropolitan area of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and outer surrounding area would revitalize Atlantic City due to a new legal gambling market that would draw in many sports bettors during major sporting events like NFL and March Madness just to name a few. It could be a bonanza for the state to save a down-trodden industry from a financial disaster. Recent surveys showed close to 70% of residents in certain states wanted a repeal to the sports betting bill known as PASPA.
Eight states including Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and West Virginia have already introduced bills that would legalize sports gambling if the 1992 law is repealed.
More states will probably prepare bills as the Supreme Court case goes forward. New Jersey has fought the major professional sports leagues for years over legal betting.
Voters there approved sports gambling in 2011. The NCAA, Major League Baseball, the NFL, the NBA and the NHL sued successfully to stop it. The state tried again with a law in 2014, and the leagues sued again. A federal appeals court upheld the federal ban last year.
But the stigma of sports betting from decades ago is eroding and the major power brokers have changed their opposition due to changing times and technology.
The Supreme Court delayed its decision on whether to take the case until President Trump’s solicitor general could weigh in on behalf of the federal government.
Trump, who once owned casinos in Atlantic City, has previously said he favored the legalization of sports betting. But his administration still asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the case. More political power plays over an issue that people want and voted positive on in 2011.
Why politicians cannot look ahead to the successful sports betting entities in Las Vegas and London. These cities experience great revenue producing markets from a form of entertainment that its citizens enjoy without doing anything illegal. The sportsbooks in Las Vegas are experiencing greater demand each year that they knew to upgrade their facilities a few years ago to meet the ongoing popularity of sports betting. Their decisions were met with instant approval from sports fans all around the Western United States and the nation who travel to Vegas many times to watch their favorite teams play in the big and beautiful sportsbooks located throughout the City. Copy this winning formula and watch the growth happen. ” If you build it they will come”.
