New Jersey lost the case, but it tried again a year ago with new legislation that attempts an end-run around the federal ban which prohibits states from authorizing, sponsoring, operating or licensing the practice – by essentially removing state control and deregulating sports wagering at casinos and racetracks.
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The appeals court judges who agreed with ban are Maryanne Trump Barry, the sister of Republican presidential candidate and Donald Trump, and Marjorie Rendell. Both affirmed the previous ruling, however.
Christie’s office did not immediately comment.
But the 2-to-1 ruling left the door open for New Jersey to further appeal the matter to the full Third Circuit appeals court.
The NCAA and the four major professional sports leagues sued to prevent the law from taking effect, arguing that New Jersey’s repeal of the law was actually an authorization of sports gambling.
Despite the decision, New Jersey is one of several states hoping to pass sports betting legislation.
The law also allowed Delaware, Montana, and Oregon to continue to offer the limited sports betting those states had offered before the ban.
New Jersey is not the only entity pushing for the legalization of sports betting. Ray Lesniak, D-Union, who is an attorney.
Later in 2011, Christie reversed his position on a sports betting referendum and announced that he would support one after previously saying it was pointless to try to topple a federal law.
In February 2013, U.S. District Judge Michael Shipp, a Paterson native, sided with the leagues.
New Jersey had argued that the new statute was different because it was a partial repeal of pre-existing prohibitions.
The law violates the U.S. Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, or PASPA, a divided three-judge panel ruled. Christie deemed a revised version acceptable two months later, and he signed that bill into law. The leagues won in the lower court before again winning this appeal.
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A federal appellate court Tuesday denied New Jersey’s latest attempt to legalize sports betting and handed the country’s biggest sports leagues a convincing victory. In a November op-ed in the New York Times, National Basketball Association commissioner Adam Silver called on Congress to create a federal framework that would allow states to offer legalized sports betting.
