The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear New Jersey officials’ appeal as part of its attempt to legalize sports betting across the state. A group of state’s officials, led by Governor Chris Christie, have been trying to officially introduce sports betting in New Jersey by passing legislation attempts twice – in 2012 and 2014.
Governor Chris Christie has previously projected that making sports betting within the state legal, could be beneficial for the economy of New Jersey. Previously, a number of lower courts issued rulings against him, and some members of President Trump’s administration urged the US Supreme Court not to allow such a hearing.
Unfortunately for the proponents of sports betting in the state, five major US sports leagues, including the NCAA, the NFL, Major League Baseball, the NHL and the NBA, have started lawsuit against the state, seeking to suspend sports betting from becoming legal across New Jersey.
After the first attempt of state’s officials to see sports betting ban removed, New Jersey made another attempt by introducing a bill in 2014. The leagues sued again. Until now, three lower courts ruled in favour of the sports betting opponents with a federal appeals court upholding the federal ban in 2016. This time, however, the state of New Jersey made an appeal to the Supreme Court.
The state of New Jersey wants to overturn the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA), which imposed a ban on sports betting activities across all states in the country, but four – Nevada, Montana, Delaware and Oregon. In each of the four afore-mentioned states sports betting is allowed to a certain extent.
No matter that the Supreme Court agreed to hear the arguments of New Jersey in favour of sports betting, oral arguments are not likely to be heard until the autumn of 2017, as the next term of the court begins in October. Still, in case that the US Supreme Court rules in favour of the state, this could provoke similar process for making gambling legal in other states.
A number of other US states, including Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Michigan, West Virginia, South Carolina and Hawaii, have already made a push to make sports betting legal, by introducing bills that would be enacted into laws in case that the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act is repealed. Apart from these states, there could be more US states that could negotiate and present bills if the Supreme Court’s ruling is made in favour of New Jersey.
In any case, the US Supreme Court is expected to review a legal controversy that started a few years ago. The Court will finally make a ruling whether PASPA violates the doctrine in terms of “anti-commandeering”. Considering the fact that the current composition of the US Supreme Court is balanced, there could still be a change for New Jersey to finally see its latest sports betting legislation attempt become law.
- Author
Daniel Williams
