[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] against New Jersey Tuesday, deciding 2-1 to uphold the federal ban on sports betting in all but four states. New Jersey has been trying to legalize sports betting at its casinos and racetracks since 2009, hoping it can help boost struggling casino visitor rates due to increased competition from casino openings in Pennsylvania and Maryland. The issue at the center of the appeal included a 2014 New Jersey vote to repeal its ban on sports gambling in the state. The state maintained that this move did not violate the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) [text] since the state did not license or authorize sports betting. The Act limits sports gambling to Nevada, Oregon, Montana, and Delaware and prohibits other states from authorizing it. “We are reviewing the opinion, and the dissent, and considering out legal options,” said Leland Moore, a spokesman on behalf of the state Attorney General’s Office [official website].

This is the latest ruling in an ongoing legal battle for New Jersey. A judge for the US District Court for the District of New Jersey [official website] ruled last November that New Jersey cannot [JURIST report] partially lift a prohibition on sports betting. In 2013 the Third Circuit affirmed [JURIST report] a lower court ruling that New Jersey’s previous sports wagering law conflicted with the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992. In 2012 JURIST guest columnist Kathryn Young defended New Jersey’s sports betting law [JURIST op-ed], arguing that gambling can effectively increase states’ revenue and should be viewed outside of its negative connotations. There is a presumptive prohibition on most forms of gambling in the US, although restrictions on some forms of Internet gambling were loosened late in 2011 when the Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] clarified that non-sports online gambling is presumptively legal [JURIST report].