American Gaming Association Proposes Lifting Federal Ban on Sports Betting

Recently, the Supreme Court of the United States received a brief from the American Gaming Association wherein it extended its support to the state of New Jersey in its efforts of getting the ban on sports betting lifted. To be more precise, the 26 pages long brief submitted by the American Gaming Association primarily questioned the PASPA or the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act that was introduced back in 1992 and prohibited all kinds of sports betting in the states.

As the argument offered by the brief, the current legislation prohibits the tribal sovereign and state governments from repealing or amending the laws that the citizens do not believe in anymore. In June this year, the Supreme Court of the US had agreed to hold a hearing where the state of New Jersey blatantly challenged and questioned the federal ban imposed by the government on both sports betting as well as wagering. The litigation apparently stands in opposition to a number of law enforcement groups, state governments and gambling advocates that are against the idea of holding professional and college level sports leagues.

In a bid to discourage New Jersey from legalizing sports betting in the state, a lawsuit was filed to the effect by a number of prominent associations including the National Hockey League, the National Basketball Association, The National Football League, the Major League Baseball and the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

The hearing will begin in October this year and the final judgment will be announced by the Supreme Court sometime next year. According to the American Gaming Association, the ban is already an utter failure with illegal gambling being still rampant across the country. As per an estimated figure, there are over $150 billion invested by Americans every single year on illegal betting for sporting events in the US. A fine example of the aforementioned statement is the total of $15 billion worth of bets placed on the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament and Super Bowl earlier this year, with nearly 97% of the bets being illegal.

The association further adds that by legalizing and regulating the sports betting operations in the states, the government could actually earn billions of dollars in revenues alone and the state could also witness the creation of over 152,000 jobs around the country. That being said, the American Gaming Association is pretty optimistic about the court ruling the decision in their favour.