NJ sports betting case gets new ally
A lawmaker expressed its support regarding the New Jersey case that seeks the legalisation of sports betting on a federal level.
US.- Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee has declared that the federal ban on sports betting violated the 10th Amendment’s grant of powers to the states, local nj.com reported.
“By ordering New Jersey to maintain prohibitions on sports gambling that its state legislature has considered and repealed before, Congress is coercing the State of New Jersey to govern according to Congress’s instructions,” he said. The lawmaker’s support comes the same week as the American Gaming Association’s, which has filed a brief to support Christie’s sports betting project. The casino association argues that sports betting ban has only led to an illegal market, whilst preventing states to benefit from the industry.
“Regulation of sports betting needs to be accomplished in a sensible manner that promotes, rather than thwarts, the strictures and principles of federalism. States like New Jersey are compelled, at the federal government’s direction, to keep their antiquated sports-betting laws and regulations effectively frozen in place at a federal standard. That result is irreconcilable with the constitutional system of dual sovereignty and dangerous in its own right,” said AGA.
Nevada, Oregon, Delaware, and Montana were granted special exemptions, as all four of those states were offering some variation of sports lotteries back in 1992. New Jersey officials said that the US Supreme Court should lift the ban on sports betting in all but four states because it forces them to embrace a regulation that Congress wants.
