All in on sports betting in New Jersey

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is to ask the US Supreme Court to allow sports gambling in his state’s casinos after a federal appeals court said last Friday it would not rehear the case .

Christie and New Jersey’s lawyers have argued – thus far unsuccessfully – that the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act federal prohibition against sports gambling is unconstitutional, in hopes of allowing Atlantic City casinos and the Monmouth Park Racetrack to offer sports betting.

New Jersey has already lost two rounds of court cases, first in U.S. District Court and then in the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. One of the three judges who heard the Circuit Court case agreed the statute was unconstitutional, but the appeals court judges have refused Christie a re-hearing before a full panel of judges.

Christie’s sole remaining move is to appeal to the US Supreme Court, reports the Washington Post..

“Gov. Christie has said all along this issue should be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, and that’s what he hopes will happen next,” Colin Reed, a Christie spokesman, told the newspaper.

“He has asked the attorneys representing the state to file the necessary paperwork. The people of New Jersey voted overwhelmingly to bring sports betting to New Jersey, and the Governor agrees with his constituents and will not give up this fight.”

Four states that allowed sports betting before the federal ban passed Congress — Delaware, Oregon, Nevada and Montana — are grandfathered in.

Voters in New Jersey approved of sports betting in referendum on the 2011 ballot by a wide margin.