Q&A: Why New Jersey is the betting favourite in its quest to overturn PASPA
Christopher Soriano, partner at New Jersey law firm Duane Morris LLP, tells EGR why he likes New Jersey’s chances in the Supreme Court sports betting case
New Jersey had its day in court Monday, as the nine Supreme Court justices heard oral arguments between the state and the professional sports leagues. The central issues is whether PASPA, the federal ban on sports betting, is constitution. New Jersey lawyer Christopher Soriano, who attended the hearing, tells EGR NA how it went.
EGR Intel: You were in court on Monday for the oral arguments, what was your sense of the Justices’ stances?
Christopher Soriano (CS): Well it’s reading tea leaves and trying to predict based on questioning, but to me it looks like a six-to-three consensus forming that PASPA is unconstitutional and will be struck
EGR Intel: What were the key arguments the justices focused on?
CS: The key is the way PASPA regulates. It regulates the activity of the state legislature rather than the conduct of individuals. The thought is that Congress can’t act like this. If it wants to regulate sports betting, it should just regulate sports betting rather than the conduct of the state legislature in terms of their ability to govern a traditional state function.
And it would appear that the majority of justices think that commandeers the states and violates the principles of federalism and the tenth amendment which provides that Congress and the states have separate authorities. There was a lot of talk about that, which favours New Jersey.
EGR Intel: Did much change during the oral arguments or was it a revisiting of the written briefs?
CS: When the court decided to hear the case there was some indication that New Jersey’s chances of winning had improved because the court doesn’t take a lot of cases, so there was clearly something of interest. And I think from the tone of the argument and the questions that were raised, many people came to the realisation that New Jersey is likely to win this case and PASPA is going to go away.
EGR Intel: It also sounds like the option of a partial repeal, or the ruling only applying to New Jersey, is also looking more unlikely?
CS: This one is a little harder to predict but I don’t think the partial repeal option was persuasive to the justices. I think it’s all or nothing, they’ll either strike the statute in its entirety or find it to be constitutional and I’m leaning towards it being struck.
EGR Intel: Are we still expecting a decision in spring 2018?
CS: It’s hard to predict exactly, the only guarantee we have is it will be no later than the end of June. The average timing is 90 to 120 days, so it’s fair to think around March or April.
EGR Intel: People like state Senator Ray Lesniak have spoken about putting a bet on the next NFL season at a William Hill book in Monmouth Park. Do we have any idea when operators might be able to take their first bet in New Jersey bets?
CS: It would be a little later than the next day as some people have said. Governor Christie said two weeks yesterday. Essentially, the regulatory framework would have to be finalised and an operator would have to be authorised to operate. The start time would be however long that process took.