New Jersey loses U.S. supreme court appeal

There’ll be no sports betting in New Jersey despite its controversial law seeking to undermine the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, say the learned judges of the US Supreme Court.

The rejection of the state’s appeal is the latest court defeat – and probably the last – following an almost four year battle by the Garden State to legalise intrastate sports betting and circumvent the PASPA, which permits sports betting in just four US states (see previous reports).

The Associated Press news agency reports that the justices did not comment in letting stand the lower court rulings that struck down New Jersey’s sports betting law because it conflicts with the federal law.

New Jersey argued that the federal government was trying to limit state sports wagering and capture some of that money for the state treasury, usurping state rights in the process.

New Jersey says an estimated $500 billion is bet illegally on sporting events each year.

Voters in New Jersey overwhelmingly amended the state constitution in 2011 to allow sports wagering.

New Jersey’s defeat is a victory for the national sports associations, backed by the US Department of Justice, which invoked the PASPA in launching litigation to stop New Jersey’s march toward legalisation despite legal defeats in a lower court and in the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia (see previous reports).

In the appeal hearing the court ruled that the New Jersey sports betting law conflicts with PASPA and must yield to the federal law, although one dissenting judge opined that Congress exceeded its authority when it passed the federal sports betting law.

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