Appeals court to revisit New Jersey sports betting case

The full Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia has agreed to rehear a case involving sports betting in New Jersey, citing the possibility that previous rulings contained conflicting language that failed to resolve federal questions critical to the case.

While supporters of legalized sports gambling cheered the decision to reopen the case before a complement of 12 judges on the Third Circuit court rather than a panel of three judges, it is not clear if the court will provide any new legal justification for New Jersey’s persistent attempts to legalize sports gambling within its borders. Previous rulings, including two in the Third Circuit, have stated that the efforts conflict with a 1992 federal law that outlawed sports betting in New Jersey and most other U.S. states.

Attorneys for New Jersey, which has shown uncommon tenacity in pressing the case that sports betting should be authorized – in large part to help the state’s struggling gambling industry – argued that the Third Circuit needed to rehear the case because two previous rulings from three-judge panels of the court contained opposing language.

In August, the Third Circuit ruled 2-1 that a law passed by the New Jersey legislature in 2014 repealing the state’s ban on sports gambling did not supersede the federal prohibition. In an earlier ruling in 2013, the Third Circuit had said that an executive order handed down by Gov. Chris Christie violated the state’s laws prohibiting sports betting, but the ruling also said that the legislature was free to repeal those prohibitions. New Jersey’s attorneys argued that those two opinions left the issue unresolved.

The Third Circuit’s announcement that it will rehear the case means that the August ruling is vacated.

With each attempt by New Jersey to remove or skirt the federal prohibition, major sports leagues have risen up to challenge the effort, and courts have consistently ruled that the 1992 federal law takes precedence over state decisions.

Under the latest New Jersey law, sports betting would be allowed at the state’s Atlantic City casinos and at racetracks in the state. The casinos and racetracks have aggressively supported the state’s efforts, but even when the federal legality of the practice was in limbo and the state’s politicians had directed local law-enforcement agencies not to intervene, none of the gambling facilities in the state offered sports betting to their customers.