Christie: Supreme Court Should Decide On NJ Sports Betting Legalization
TRENTON, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Gov. Chris Christie thinks the U.S. Supreme Court should decide whether New Jersey can legalize sports betting.
Christie commented Wednesday while co-hosting WFAN's "Boomer and Carton'' sports-take radio show.
More: More Sports News | Listen To WFAN Live | Boomer & Carton Podcast
A federal appeals court on Tuesday set aside the state's challenge to a federal betting ban. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling invalidated a law passed by New Jersey in 2014 that would have allowed sports betting at casinos and racetracks. The court found New Jersey's law repealing prohibitions against sports gambling violated the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which forbids state-authorized sports gambling.
Christie says officials are trying to stop New Jersey from legalizing illegal bets made on sports.
Currently, only Nevada offers betting on individual games. Delaware offers multi-game parlay betting in which players must pick several games correctly to win. Hundreds of billions of dollars are bet illegally on sports annually.
The Republican says it is "long shot'' that the nation's highest court would take the case.
The four major professional sports leagues and the NCAA sued the state in 2012, claiming the expansion of legal sports betting would damage the integrity of their games and lead to more game-fixing.
Several court rulings have sided with the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB and NCAA, though there have been dissents in two previous three-judge rulings at the 3rd Circuit.
Sports betting supporters have called the leagues' stance hypocritical, saying the leagues condone and profit from sports fantasy leagues in which participants assemble rosters of players from different teams and compete against others.
(TM and © Copyright 2016 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2016 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
