Betting on college and professional sports will remain illegal in New Jersey after the Supreme Court agreed with a lower level court ruling that it went against a federal law.
In 2012, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed a law that allowed sports gambling at racetracks and in Atlantic City. However, several professional sports leagues did not agree with this. They sued the state in March 2013 and federal judge struck the law down, according to Reuters.
In September 2013, New Jersey appealed to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that there is a federal law that prohibits licensed sports betting in most states.
The law is from 1992 and is called the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which was made to limit sports betting to only a handful of states, the AP.
New Jersey believes that Congress has overstepped its bound by creating the law and they want it repealed.
Six other states agreed with New Jersey’s position on the law and presented court filings to the Supreme Court, The Record reports.
In a statement, New Jersey State Senate President Stephen Sweeney said the ruling would not discourage the state.
“Obviously, I’m disappointed by the court’s decision today,” he said. “ I have no doubt that had they taken up the case they would have seen that New Jersey is in the right challenging this unconstitutional law”…“We are not giving up though.”
The only four states are allowed to have legalized sports betting are Nevada, Oregon, Delaware, and Montana.
Elder Ordonez/INFphoto.com