This blog usually deals with crime and punishment. Today, we’ll
focus on an effort to do away with a law that has landed a lot of people in
jail over the years. It is strange, sports betting is illegal with a few
exceptions (Nevada), yet newspapers around the country, television sports show
and websites talk about “the line.” How
much a given team must win or lose by to win a bet.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie gambled big-time five years
ago when he signed a law authorizing sports betting at casinos and racetracks
and dared anyone to "try to stop us," reported the USA Today.
That's exactly what college and professional sports leagues
and the federal government have done, thanks to a succession of court rulings
upholding a 25-year-old federal law that prohibits gambling on sports
outside Nevada and three other states with small sports lotteries.
But Christie has one last shot before leaving office next
month. Today the Supreme
Court will hear oral arguments in his case and could decide, as
many court-watchers predict, that the ban violates states' rights. Such a
ruling could open the floodgates to sports betting in any state willing to
regulate it.
According to the new National Law Journal Supreme Court
Brief, the American Gaming Association estimates that Americans bet $150
billion on sports annually, and only 3 percent of those bets are legal. If the
Supreme Court strikes down the federal law that prohibits sports betting in
most places, the industry will only grow, with sports betting spreading fast
among revenue-thirsty states.
The dynamics of the case make for interesting bedfellows, as Bloomberg’s Greg
Stohr notes: “All it took to bring Donald Trump and the National Football
League together was New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and his Supreme Court
bid to legalize sports gambling. The NFL, a target of the president’s Twitter
ire over national anthem protests, is banding together with the administration
to fight the outgoing governor.”
Oh, if you'd like to bet on which justice asks the first question you can find the odds here.
To read more CLICK HERE
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