After months of waiting, the Supreme Court finally announced its decision on New Jersey’s request to repeal PASPA (Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act). As many predicted, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of New Jersey and repealed the act, which prevented states from legalizing sports betting. The court decided 6-3 in favor of overturning PASPA, which now allows all states in the USA to decide for themselves if they want to legalize sports betting.
The Supreme Court has overturned PASPA, effectively legalizing Sports Betting in the USA. States will now need to decide if they want to legalize it or not.
Congress Overstepped Authority with PASPA
PASPA was passed into law back in 1992 and prevented all states from legalizing and regulating sports betting. The only exceptions were states where it was already legal. These were Nevada, Delaware, Oregon, and Montana. New Jersey petitioned the Supreme Court to review the constitutionality of PASPA after several lower courts refused to allow New Jersey to legalize sports betting. The lower courts said the state did not have the right to overturn federal law.
However, the Supreme Court decided in favour of New Jersey, ruling that Congress had overstepped its authority with PASPA. With the case finally being decided, we could now see sports betting being legalized in as many as 25 different states within the next few years. It is expected to become a multi-billion-dollar industry.
Race is on for Sports Betting
Many states were expecting this decision and have already passed bills to legalize sports betting in their states, provided PASPA was repealed. New Jersey is obviously one of them, so we could see operational sportsbooks in Atlantic City within a few weeks. Monmouth Park built a sportsbook years ago, after New Jersey legalized sports betting. However, it sat unused after the courts ruled against the state.
Several other casinos have been already announced they are building sportsbooks, with the Borgata announcing a $7 million facility in November 2017. It is also expected that several prominent International sportsbooks will be racing to enter the American market. These include UK-based firms such as Paddy Power and William Hill, who is already operational in Nevada.
