Musburger predicts Supreme Court will throw out sports betting ban
It was revealed last week that U.S. Solicitor General Noel J. Francisco has asked for 10 minutes of oral argument in support of the major sports leagues in New Jersey’s appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the federal ban on sports betting.
Ironically, it was a position of the U.S. Solicitor General’s Office that led to the New Jersey law now being challenged by the NFL, NBA, NHL and NCAA. New Jersey’s first sports-betting law, enacted in 2012, was struck down in the courts as a violation of the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA). Former Solicitor General Donald M. Verrilli, Jr. filed an amicus brief in that case in which he wrote that New Jersey “is free to repeal (federal sports-betting) prohibitions in whole or in part.”
New Jersey seized on that language, repealing the federal prohibition on sports betting in New Jersey in favor of a state-regulated system to authorize sports books in Atlantic City casinos in a law signed by Governor Chris Christie in 2014.
By that time, the Solicitor General’s Office had publicly reversed the opinion stated in Verilli’s brief, and in May, Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall filed a brief recommending that the high court decline to hear the case. Many were surprised when the Supreme Court agreed to hear it—a rare case of the justices declining to follow the advice of the Solicitor General.
In Francisco’s October amicus brief, he argued that New Jersey’s law violates PASPA, and that PASPA itself falls within the bounds of the federal government’s “supremacy” over state law. The solicitor general’s brief also contends that it is not necessary for the high court to rule on the constitutionality of PASPA in whole or part.
While New Jersey’s position in briefs and arguments in the case has been that PASPA itself is an unconstitutional extension of federal authority over the states, the solicitor general’s brief states that the current case “did not challenge PASPA’s constitutionality,” that being the reason the federal Department of Justice did not file as an intervenor in the case as it did in the first New Jersey sports-betting case.
Francisco’s most recent filing requests 10 minutes of oral argument before the Supreme Court in its December 4 hearing on the case in Washington, D.C. Since attorneys for the sports leagues have agreed, observers expect that request will be granted.
Meanwhile, veteran sportscaster and Las Vegas handicapper Brent Musburger has predicted that the U.S. Supreme Court will strike PASPA down in the New Jersey case. Speaking on the HBO program Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, Musburger, who retired from ESPN last year to start VISN, a SiriusXM satellite radio show broadcast from the floor of the South Point Casino in Las Vegas, predicted the justices will rule that if sports betting is legal in some states, it should be in every state.
“They will rule in favor of the state of New Jersey and Chris Christie,” Musburger said. “(Sports betting) will then explode across the country.”
He also criticized the sports leagues for hypocrisy, noting the fact that two of the plaintiffs, the NFL and NHL, are locating teams in Las Vegas. “If you want to sit in your ivory tower and pontificate about the integrity of your beloved game, why would you put one of your franchises within walking distance of several sports books?”
HBO, in a press release about the segment, also predicted legalized sports betting.
“For decades, the four major sports leagues were unanimous in maintaining that Las Vegas would never get a pro sports team, thanks to the proximity to legal sports betting and its possible impact on the integrity of the games,” the release said. “That changed this fall when the NHL’s newest team, the Vegas Golden Knights, took to the ice for their hometown debut. With the Oakland Raiders also planning to settle in Vegas in the future, the dominos are falling and the next change might be legalized sports betting outside Nevada.”
The New Jersey case comes as sports betting popularity continues to rise. Nevada’s sports books registered a record handle for September, taking in $558 million in bets. With October and November traditionally busy months for the bookmakers, many are predicting more months of record handle.
Meanwhile, the push for a repeal of PASPA received more support last week from the attorney general of Texas, a state with no commercial casinos. “PASPA is unconstitutional and tramples on state sovereignty,” said Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, according to Card Player. “By ending PASPA, states can rightfully decide whether they want regulated sports betting or not.”
