A federal court of appeals ruled against New Jersey Tuesday in a case challenging a sports gambling law the state passed in 2014 to revive its failing casinos and racetracks. It was this injunction New Jersey appealed to the Third Circuit court.
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But State Senator Raymond Lesniak says the profits are propping up organized crime, or are filling the coffers of the four states where sports betting is offered in some form, like Delaware.
“Even the analysis from the court admits PASPA is criticized for allowing illegal gambling to flourish and stifling vital economic growth at our racetracks and casinos”, Lesniak added.
“The issue presented in this appeal is whether [the 2014 New Jersey law] to partially repeal certain prohibitions on sports gambling, violates federal law”, Rendell wrote, via John Brennan of NorthJersey.com. Leland Moore, a spokesman for the New Jersey Office of Attorney General, said in a voicemail that “we are reviewing the decision and the dissent and considering our legal options”. “Because of the dissent in 2013 and today’s dissent, our next logical step is to ask for an en banc hearing of the Third Circuit where we believe a full opinion is necessary to secure and maintain uniformity of the court’s decisions”.
Judges Marjorie Rendell, Maryanne Trump Barry, and Julio Fuentes were on the panel. Bill Bradley, D-N.J., a former Knicks player, banned gambling nationwide but gave New Jersey a one-year window, until the end of 1993, to pass a law permitting sports betting. None of the casinos or racetracks began taking bets, however, as the court fight continued, and a federal judge ruled against Christie two months later.
An appeal is planned, according to Monmouth and state legislators.
Still, Lesniak said language in last year’s Third Circuit ruling suggested that New Jersey was free to repeal state laws against such wagering “in whole or in part”, opening the door for casinos and tracks to offer sports betting as long as the state didn’t sponsor or regulate it.
Attorneys and advisors had predicted that had New Jersey won, it would have enabled the state to grab a slice of a national market that could be as much as $400 billion and would have had implications beyond the state.
New Jersey is not the only state fighting for the legalization of sports betting.
“Therefore, with respect to those areas, there are no laws governing sports wagering and the right to engage in such conduct does not come from the state”, he wrote.
At the same time, two members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation – U.S. Reps. But it was clear there were going to be legal challenges nearly immediately, as the leagues have been determined to prevent state-by-state sports betting expansion. Laws has been launched this yr in New York, Indiana, Minnesota, South Carolina and Texas, ESPN reported.
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“We are pleased that the Third Circuit has adopted the position of the sports leagues and the NCAA”, said Major League Baseball in a statement. He blocked the new law again previous year.
