New Jersey has been on a run to legalize sports betting in the United States so that they can allow for it in their casinos, as they were not one of the few states that were “grandfathered” that was allowed to continue having sports betting in their state. This has been a battle that’s lasted several years. There has been a lot of prospect that the battle might take a turn for the better under the new presidency of Donald Trump.
The United States Supreme Court did the unexpected and has decided to delay giving any sort of decision to determine whether or not it will take on the New Jersey sports betting case that would allow for casinos and race tracks to begin taking wagers on sporting events. Their alternative for the time being is to have the new United States solicitor general to introduce a brief for the federal government. The downside to this move is that it will take a few more months before the case can move any further, but this doesn’t mean that it is bad news.
Experts are claiming that this is actually a really good indication for New Jersey that the case will be heard. After about half a decade of pushing for sports betting, this has been the biggest step taken in the right direction in a long time. The effort has been made in order to keep the gambling and horse racing industry from collapsing as they have slowly declined over the years.
The case was submitted to the Supreme Court without much hope that it would be taken seriously and actually be heard. Back in 2014 the court had already declined to hear another version of this case, and so it had the history of being refused. Now it seems that it has received the court’s attention.
This decision shows that the Supreme Court justices are split on deciding the case and want to learn a bit more before taking any action. That’s a good sign because it means that there is actually a case here and it isn’t frivolous to pursue it again. The bad part is that it could delay it for another 6 months, and possibly even longer than that since there isn’t a time frame set. However, if it means the case will be heard, it will be worth the wait.
Not only is the position for United States solicitor general is up in there air, not to mention the fact that Trump will get to appoint a new Supreme Court Justice that will take that ninth tie-breaking position. There is a lot of speculation that President Trump will be favorable towards sports betting given his history of casino ownership through his four Atlantic City casinos that he owned up until 2009. He also indicted to Fox Sports that he is fine with legalizing sports betting back in 2015 based off the claim that it is already happening anyways.
