Supreme Court to hear New Jersey's bid for Sports Gambling

Diehardblues

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On Tuesday the highest court agreed to hear their bid to allow sports betting at casinos like in Nevada. That the court even agreed to hear the case is considered a major victory from a sports betting industry that has long been eager to expand outside of Nevada.

Major sports leagues have come to accept and even embrace sports betting though for some reason are still fighting New Jersey's effort to get a piece of the action.

New Jersey is attempting to save struggling casinos and racetracks by offering single game sports betting prohibited everywhere but Nevada under a 1992 Federal Law.

The four major sports leagues and the NCAA sued in 2012 after the state passed a law to allow the betting and until the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case it appeared as if the New Jersey effort was dead.

That hadn't stopped the American Gaming Assiciation , a casino group, from pushing for federal legislation to legalize sports betting. An idea which has received a lot of new interest in the wake of explosion of Fantasy Football that is basically sports betting under another name.

What will be interesting as the case goes before the court are the actions of the plaintiffs themselves . A lot has changed in the five years since the suit was filed with NBA commish Adam Silver now on record as saying legal sports betting is good for the league and the NFL allowing the Raiders to move to Las Vegas where there are no restrictions on betting on the team.

What the leagues should really be doing instead of wasting resources on policies of the past is getting together with all parties involved including the sports betting industry and helping draft legislation to Congress to allow legal sports betting in states that want it.

Put in the necessary controls and establish a way for them to be enforced. Give the states the option of opting out and carve out some restrictions on betting college games where betting becomes legal .

Do it right and the leagues will have an ally in sports betting industry. Cut them in on the action sharing profits if that's what it takes and stop treating sports betting like it's some sort of evil and you might be surprised just how innocuous it turns out to be.
 
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