On December 4, 2017, the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments in Christie v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, No. 16-476, regarding the constitutionality of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (“PASPA”), a federal law that prohibits states from authorizing and regulating sports wagering. The case could have significant implications for legal and regulated gambling across the country, including Pennsylvania, where the General Assembly recently passed legislation that would authorize sports wagering in the Commonwealth if PASPA is found to be unconstitutional or is repealed by Congress.
Enacted into law in 1992, PASPA placed prohibitions on legal sports betting across the country. The law specifically prohibits any government or individual to operate, sponsor or license a gambling or wagering scheme, which included lotteries and sweepstakes, that are based directly or indirectly on the outcome of competitive games in which athletes participate. The law excluded certain forms of competitive sports, including jai alai and pari-mutuel horse and dog racing. The law also grandfathered in states that had already authorized sports wagering, which included Delaware, Oregon and Montana, each of which had authorized sports lotteries within its borders, and Nevada, which had authorized full-scale sports wagering prior to PASPA’s enactment.
Also, Congress provided a one-year window under PASPA during which certain eligible states could authorize sports wagering. This option was limited to states that had at least 10 years of licensed casino gaming at the time of enactment of PASPA, and was included in the law to provide New Jersey with the opportunity to add sports wagering to its existing gaming regime. However, New Jersey failed to act within the one-year window provided under PASPA.
Nearly two decades after failing to authorize sports wagering during the one-year window under PASPA, in 2012, the New Jersey Legislature passed a law legalizing and regulating sports betting. The 2012 law was subsequently challenged in federal district court by the major sports organizations – the National Collegiate Athletic Association, Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the National Football League and the National Hockey League. The challengers argued that New Jersey’s law violated PASPA’s clear ban on governments establishing or licensing sports wagering. New Jersey responded by arguing that PASPA violated the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The federal court agreed with the sports organizations, and struck down New Jersey’s sports...
