Appeals court hands loss to New Jersey sports betting effort

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled that the state’s law violated a 1992 federal ban on sports betting, the Associated Press reported.

“We conclude that the 2014 law violates PASPA because it authorizes by law sports gambling”, the court ruled. Federal law prohibits the state from regulating it.

Though the high court has previously rejected a request from the state to hear a prior sports betting appeals, Lesniak feels that there’s a better chance this time around, given that there were two dissenting opinions.

The setback could bring an end to the state’s years of sports betting efforts.

The appeals judges ruled New Jersey’s law violates a 1992 federal law that only allows betting on individual games in Nevada, while DE can offer multi-game parlay betting.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and supporters in the state Legislature have sought to legalize sports gambling to help prop up the struggling casino and horse racing industries. That will leave only seven casinos overall – and only four on the fabled Boardwalk that, as of 2013, had nine such facilities.

The leagues said legal wagering is barred by the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, or PASPA. States have since differed on whether such contests amount to sports betting in just a slightly different form.

New Jersey has lost every step of the way, including two rejections from the Third Circuit. The other thought PASPA was unconstitutional because it violated state sovereignty.

“I do not see how a partial repeal of prohibitions is tantamount to authorizing by law a sports wagering scheme in violation of PASPA”, Fuentes wrote.

But before the betting began, the NFL, NCAA and three other sports organizations sued the state in federal court.

New Jersey could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

A federal appeals court on Tuesday said New Jersey can not legalize sports betting, in a big defeat for supporters of the years-long effort to allow such wagers in the state. The majority ruling also noted that the state could repeal its sports betting laws “in whole or in part” – thus not being a commandeering issue. “I remain committed to seeing sports betting become legal in New Jersey and will work to pass the bipartisan legislation Congressman LoBiondo and I have introduced that would allow sports gaming”. But Shipp found a month later that the new version – which voided numerous state sports betting prohibitions – also ran afoul of federal law. Almost a year ago, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia reconsidered its ruling made last summer.

Last October, the Third Circuit granted New Jersey its appeal for a special en banc rehearing of its case, effectively vacating a previous 2-1 decision against the state handed down the previous August.