Forbes: A Narrow Ruling For New Jersey Could Still Allow Sports Betting By Private Operators
Even if the U.S. Supreme Court decides not to allow legalized sports betting, there is still a narrow path for private companies to allow it, so says Forbes.com.
The most likely outcome, according to experts, is that the Supreme Court will issue a ruling declaring PASPA to be unconstitutional.
Forbes.com writes of the other path to allowing private operators a means of offering legalized sports betting:
But there is another path for a New Jersey victory other than a complete invalidation of PASPA. As previously highlighted in my analysis of the Dec. 4 oral argument, the Supreme Court could decide the case on narrow grounds. It could rule as a matter of statutory interpretation that New Jersey’s partial repeal law (which lifts state prohibitions against sports gambling at casinos and racetracks) does not constitute a violation of PASPA because the state would not be “authorizing” sports gambling when it merely decriminalized such activity. Or, alternatively, the Court could hold that PASPA is unconstitutional but only to the extent that it prohibits states from repealing their sports betting prohibitions. (The latter was the specific question presented in New Jersey’s original petition to the Supreme Court.)
Under either narrow ruling, New Jersey would end up in the exact same place: with sports betting allowed at the state’s racetracks and casinos, possibly as soon as two or three weeks following the Court’s decision.
