Appeals Court Hands Loss To New Jersey Sports Betting Effort

http://m.startribune.com/appeals-court-hands-loss-to-new-jersey-sports-betting-effort/389599231/


NEWARK, N.J. — A federal appeals court has rejected New Jersey's attempt to legalize sports betting, setting aside the state's legal challenge to a federal ban.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling published Tuesday invalidates a law passed by New Jersey in 2014 that would have allowed sports betting at casinos and racetracks.

The four major professional sports leagues and the NCAA sued the state, claiming the expansion of legal sports betting would damage the integrity of their games and lead to game-fixing.

Currently, only Nevada offers betting on individual games. Delaware offers multigame parlay betting in which players must pick several games correctly to win. Hundreds of billions of dollars are bet illegally on sports annually.

The 3rd Circuit wrote Tuesday New Jersey's law violates a 1992 federal law.

I will never stop posting, bitching, complaining about shit like this until it STOPS!!!! I grew up thinking I lived in the LAND OF THE FREE....what a crock of fuckin BS I was taught....I am a grown man and EARN MY money and if I want to bet on a baseball team to win tonight, what the fuck gives these people the right to tell me it is illegal! Fuck them.

Ouch. That sucks.

KingEleven said:

I will never stop posting, bitching, complaining about shit like this until it STOPS!!!! I grew up thinking I lived in the LAND OF THE FREE....what a crock of fuckin BS I was taught....I am a grown man and EARN MY money and if I want to bet on a baseball team to win tonight, what the fuck gives these people the right to tell me it is illegal! Fuck them.

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Maybe you should move to another country where it is legal....just a thought

The odds NJ would win were slim.

If sports legalization is going to be won, it's going to be nationwide where every state is likely governed the same way.

This loss to NJ won't stop the increased efforts everywhere to get PASPA repealed & eventual legalization.

The only sports league who is totally against it still is the crooked NFL who of course only favors things that benefit them immensely...

Hache Man said:

The odds NJ would win were slim.

If sports legalization is going to be won, it's going to be nationwide where every state is likely governed the same way.

This loss to NJ won't stop the increased efforts everywhere to get PASPA repealed & eventual legalization.

The only sports league who is totally against it still is the crooked NFL who of course only favors things that benefit them immensely...

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I knew it wouldn't get passed......the target year is 2019 by most lawyers involved in this issue.

Boggles my mind how prostitution, sports betting, & soon to be legal weed is allowed in one state & not another......why separate laws in different states? Europe has different laws in each country because they're not united.

Nothing will happen unless PASPA gets repealed and it's tough to get any law, even the most foolish ones, repealed. It's going to be a long time.

VIEJO DINOSAUR said:

Maybe you should move to another country where it is legal....just a thought

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I should not have to...that is the point

The Computer Group said:

I knew it wouldn't get passed......the target year is 2019 by most lawyers involved in this issue.

Boggles my mind how prostitution, sports betting, & soon to be legal weed is allowed in one state & not another......why separate laws in different states? Europe has different laws in each country because they're not united.

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actually, this is where I disagree with you...we do NOT want the Federal government deciding everything for every state...this is the REASON we are the UNITED States....what should happen is it is legalized at the local level from EACH state

ABC News

A U.S. appeals court ruled in favor of the four major professional sports leagues and the NCAA on Tuesday, denying New Jersey's quest to legalize sports betting.

The U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia found that New Jersey's most recent attempt to bring Las Vegas-style sports betting to its casinos and horse racing tracks violated the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), the 24-year-old federal prohibition on state-sponsored sports betting.

The court battle between New Jersey and the sports leagues has been ongoing for years. In January 2012, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie signed legislation that authorized the state to offer legal sports betting. The state got as far as posting sports betting regulations on the gaming enforcement's website in the spring of 2012, before the leagues filed suit.

The sports leagues won every step of the way during a legal battle that featured an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and deposition testimony by the commissioners for the NFL, NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball.

After the Supreme Court declined to take the case, New Jersey passed a new version of its sports betting law that was once again contested by the leagues. This phase of the battle earned a rare en banc rehearing in the Third Circuit. All 12 judges heard oral arguments in February.

Ten of the judges ruled in favor of the sports leagues. Judges Julio Fuentes and Thomas Vanaskie offered dissenting opinions.

"We now hold that the District Court correctly ruled that because PASPA, by its terms, prohibits states from authorizing by law sports gambling and because the 2014 Law does exactly that, the 2014 Law violates federal law," Judge Marjorie Rendell wrote in the court's 12-page opinion.

New Jersey's not done fighting yet, though. State Sen. Raymond Lesniak, who has spearheaded the sports betting effort, says he will ask the Supreme Court to hear the case and examine additional opportunities within the state.


"It's a long shot, but at least we have two dissenting votes on our side," Lesniak said Tuesday morning, after reviewing the Third Circuit's opinion.

"Second, I'm going to test the public's, legislature's and the governor's temperature on repealing all our laws on sports betting and using the extensive police powers of the state to restrict the locations where sports betting can take place, for instance, like we do with gentlemen's clubs. I'll also beef up our office of consumer affairs to closely oversee the operations to protect the consumer."