In their opposition to authorizing New Jersey to regulate sports betting, the Trump administration is siding with the professional sports league. On the other hand, the Republican Governor, Chris Christie, is calling the leagues “hypocrites” for opposing betting while having teams in Las Vegas.
Ahead of arguments scheduled for Dec. 4, the solicitor general’s office has filed a brief this week with the US Supreme court for supporting the leagues. Christie’s administration is challenging a 1992 federal law. The 1992 federal law bans gambling on sports in all but four states, while the Republican Governor sees sports betting as a way to boost New Jersey’s casino and race track industries.
The New Jersey officials say that the high court must strike down the ban on sports betting in all but four states — Nevada, Delaware, Oregon and Montana. They say it wrongly forces states to enforce a regulation that Congress wants. The solicitor general says that while Congress can’t require states to enact particular laws, it can prevent state laws which “conflict with federal policy.”
The state has been trying to legalize sports betting for nearly a decade now so that a share of the estimated $150 billion that is bet illegally on sports each year can be grabbed. New Jersey tried repealing its regulations regarding sports betting, leaving no law in place at all, after all its efforts to regulate legal sports betting went in vain.