Supreme Court Sports Betting Decision May Aid New Jersey

The Supreme Court appears poised to legalize sports betting in states across the country, significantly expanding gambling activity in the United States.

Today, only Nevada can allow sports betting, a provision grandfathered into the 1992 federal law banning states from legalizing sports betting, but not banning it on a national level.

However, in a Monday hearing at the Supreme Court for the case of Governor Christopher J. Christie, et al. v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, NFL, et al., justices appeared to sympathize with Christie’s legal arguments, according to NBC News.

The National Football League, National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, National Hockey League and NCAA filed a collective lawsuit in 2012 against the state of New Jersey for signing into law a referendum legalizing sports betting, which violated the 1992 federal law.

Courts have repeatedly ruled against the state of New Jersey. However, Christie has repeatedly appealed the decisions, and the case reached the Supreme Court this year.

Christie has argued that with illegal gambling taking place unregulated, it is in the state’s interest to legalize and profit off the sports betting, which by some estimates generates as much as $150 billion annually as an illegal industry, according to CNN.

“The fact is that organized crime is involved in profiting from this every day,” Christie said in response to U.S. Senator Bill Bradley, a former basketball star who said the ban was crucial to keeping crime out of sports, according to NBC News.

Christie’s state of New Jersey in particular is poised to benefit from the legalization. Researchers have estimated that the state could earn more than $500 million in revenue annually, and see more than $8 billion in bets placed in the state, if sports betting is legalized, according to ESPN.

“I’m just so excited for this to come to fruition. This will spring life into Atlantic City, make it a heyday once again,” New Jersey State Sen. Ray Lesniak said, according to ESPN.

Lesniak was responsible for the 2011 ballot initiative that voters passed 2-1 legalizing sports betting.

At least 18 states, including New Jersey, have indicated interest in enacting state sports gambling if the Supreme Court decides in favor of New Jersey, according to USA Today.

The Supreme Court is expected to make a decision on the case in summer 2018.