Will New Jersey sue U.S. sports leagues for lost sports betting revenue?

US media reports that the state of New Jersey may seek to recoup both its substantial legal costs and the hundreds of millions it may have made had the sports leagues not challenged its attempts to introduce intrastate sports betting in 2014 have been discounted by legal experts.

They have pointed out that the leagues did not act improperly in resorting to blocking litigation, and based their action on PASPA – a long-established federal law which the US Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional this week.

Experts argue that the sports leagues could therefore be said to be no more legally liable than the members of Congress who passed PASPA back in 1996, or for that matter the president who signed it into law and the lower courts which sustained the leagues’ opposition for several years.

The more cynical among industry observers suggest a different rationale for such a move, should it materialise; a ploy to discourage the sports leagues from attempting to secure a slice of the lucrative sports betting pie, dressed up as an “integrity fee”.

Several states working on sports betting legislation have been sounded out by the leagues on such a fee, with mixed reactions from the states.