Legal Sports Betting Is Coming To US, As New Jersey Wins Supreme Court Case
Dustin Gouker, May 14, 2018
It’s game on for sports betting in New Jersey, and perhaps the rest of the country as well.
The state of New Jersey won its US Supreme Court case, as a majority of justices declared that the federal ban on sports wagering is unconstitutional.
More on the backstory of NJ sports betting here. Previously, single-game wagering was legal in the US only via the Nevada sports betting industry.
Here is the conclusion of the majority opinion:
The legalization of sports gambling requires an important policy choice, but the choice is not ours to make. Congress can regulate sports gambling directly, but if it elects not to do so, each State is free to act on its own. Our job is to interpret the law Congress has enacted and decide whether it is consistent with the Constitution. PASPA is not. PASPA “regulate state governments’ regulation” of their citizens. …. The Constitution gives Congress no such power. The judgment of the Third Circuit is reversed.
SCOTUS impacts on sports betting
The real-world applications of the verdict:
New Jersey can now move forward with its plans to legalize wagering. Some gaming facilities in the state have indicated it could be just a matter of weeks until sportsbooks are operations.
West Virginia sports betting and Mississippi sports betting are also prepared to move forward with laws on the books.
So can Pennsylvania, which legalized sports wagering in 2017. A PA sports betting rollout there is up in the air, but could come later this year.
Sports betting legislation advancing in a number of states can take effect immediately upon passage.
A quick timeline of the case
New Jersey enacted a law in 2014 in which it partially repealed its own sports betting ban. That law was an attempt to allow the state’s casinos and horse betting tracks to offer sports wagering by working around a federal law, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. That law bans single-game wagering outside of Nevada sports betting.
The NCAA and the major US pro sports leagues — NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL — along with the NCAA filed suit to stop the law from taking effect. The leagues have standing under PASPA to bring suits that authorize sports betting.
Over the next three years, New Jersey lost in both federal district court and the US Third Circuit Court of Appeals. New Jersey then appealed the case to the US Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court agreed to hear New Jersey’s appeal in the summer of 2017.
Oral arguments took place in December; many believed the hour of conversation between justices and counsel went well for New Jersey.