The U.S. Solicitor General and professional sports leagues have filed a response to New Jersey’s bid to overturn a federal ban on sports betting that argues that the state is trying to correct its own mistake for not approving sports betting 20 years ago.
When the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act was enacted in 1993, New Jersey was given a one-year window to adopt sports betting. But the issue became embroiled in a tight gubernatorial race and was blocked by Republicans in the statehouse worried that a public referendum would bring out urban—and largely Democratic—voters.
New Jersey has now petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the ban, which it claims is discriminatory since four states were grandfathered in to allow sports betting.
Filing for the U.S. in the appeal, U.S. Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. wrote that New Jersey had its shot at being one of the grandfathered states and is “not in a good position to complain” about being barred from offering sports betting
“New Jersey’s free choice not to avail itself of that opportunity within the time offered should not now provide a basis for a claim of discriminatory treatment,” Verrilli said.
In 2012, New Jersey passed a sports betting law that went against the federal ban, but was sued by the professional sports leagues and the NCAA to block the law. The federal government then joined the suit to uphold the ban.
New Jersey has since lost several rounds of the case in lower courts, including two rulings in federal appeals court upholding the ban. The state then petitioned the Supreme Court.
When the act was first passed, New jersey was given the one-year window to pass sports betting, but the issue became mired in the then very close gubernatorial race between incumbent Democrat James Florio and Republican challenger Christie Todd Whitman.
A public referendum was needed to approve any change in the state’s gambling laws, but a sports betting referendum was blocked in the state Assembly. Several Republican strategists at the time later admitted that Republicans were worried that if the referendum was on the ballot, Atlantic City casinos would advertise heavily in urban areas to bring out voters. Republicans feared those voters would lean towards Florio.
Whitman won the election by a single percentage point, or about 25,000 votes.
The Supreme Court is expected to decide in June whether to hear the case next year.
