Federal Appeals Panel Takes On New Jersey Sports Betting
By David Madden
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- Another court hearing, this time before a three judge federal appeals panel in Philadelphia, on whether sports betting will be allowed without governmental interference within New Jersey.
On one side is the state, seeing a loophole in recent opinions from the Third Circuit that would pave the way for sports books as long as officials, in effect, stayed out of it.
State Senator Raymond Lesniak is the prime sponsor of the repeal approved by legislators and signed by the Governor.
"Under the 10th amendment to the Constitution, New Jersey has the right to have sports betting and not to regulate it and that's what it has chosen to do," he says.
On the other side is sports leagues and the NCAA, trying to stop sports bets from being offered in New Jersey - which for now is prohibited by federal law. The state repealing its prohibition to sports betting is an effort league attorney Paul Clement suggests doesn't go far enough to circumvent the federal ban.
"You can't accomplish through a partial repeal or any other guise what New Jersey desperately wants to do, which is to channel sports gambling only to their favorite venues," he says.
One thing's certain -- whichever side loses will take this matter on further appeal.
