Supreme Court Nixes NJ Appeal to Sponsor Sports Betting

The US Supreme Court has thrown out an appeal by New Jersey State Governor Chris Christie to revive the state's sports wagering law.

Consistent with Original Federal Ban

The written decision specifically communicated the court's refusal to review last year's ruling barring the State of New Jersey from offering sports bets, as consistent with a 1992 federal law that first instituted the state ban across all states except Nevada, the lone state offering sports betting at the time of the law's introduction.

Claim of Unconstitutionality Rejected

The grounds for New Jersey's appeal was based on the claim that the federal law was unconstitutional, the argument rejected by the appeals court. A previous public referendum on sports betting in New Jersey in 2011 that came to the same conclusion resulted in the allowance of some sports betting with restrictions.

The claim of unconstitutionality of the federal sports-betting ban on states was based on the argument of Christie that the law was an intrusion on states' rights and represented unequal treatment of states, provoking a swarm of legal opposition to his appeal from private and public groups in America including the National Football League (NFL) and the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

The Integrity of the Game

The fundamental argument against Christie's appeal for state-sponsored gambling was the threat to the integrity of the games. The Obama Administration publicly backed the leagues' claims, and the Supreme Court has now concurred.

This appeal exhausts Christie's legal avenues, so the sports betting issue in New Jersey appears to be shelved for now. In general, the decision means that states cannot expect to collect revenues on sports gambling, because the ban on their ability to sponsor gambling in their jurisdictions remains in effect, except for Nevada.

Online Casinos Still in Play

Of course, the sports betting sponsorship ban does not apply to gambling, or online casinos. While the acceptance of online casinos is progressing, the threat to the integrity of an industry as huge as sports is too great an argument to overcome in regards to sports wagering per se.