US Approves Nationwide Sports Betting, Ending Nevada Monopoly
Published May 14, 2018 by Sol FH
The US courts ended a federal law to restrict sports betting; great news for online bookmakers.
In one of the biggest moves ever in online sports gambling in North America, the United States Supreme Court on Monday ended a longtime restriction on states being able to offer sports gambling. This new ruling will bust Nevada’s monopoly on legal sports betting and will help the US economy strive with tax profits.
The vote, which took place early Monday morning in the US, was a 6-3 ruling which ended the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which did not ban sports betting, rather said that individual states were not to allow it. That law, which protected solely Nevada, passed in 1992. A few years ago, then Governor of NJ, Chris Christie argued that it went against the tenth amendment, and NJ was soon after approved for sports betting.
As a part of the 6-3 majority, Justice Samuel Alito was quoted, “state legislatures are put under direct control of Congress. A more direct affront to state sovereignty is not easy to imagine.”
The Proof is in the Numbers
Earlier this year, the American Gaming Association estimated that the NCAA basketball tournament would see over $10 billion in bets, and only 3% of those bets would be placed in Nevada legally. Regulated sports gambling would look to end this trend of organized crime taking part in sports betting by letting states offer it themselves.
Geoff Freeman, CEO of the Gaming Association related, “Our current sports betting laws are so out of touch with reality that we’re turning tens of millions of Americans into criminals for the simple act of enjoying college basketball.”
This is certainly great news for online sports betting operators that will surely begin to offer wagering in the coming months. It is not yet sure which states will offer sports wagering and with what capacity but expect this ruling to really stir things up.
