May 16, 2018 The Skanner Page 9
News
Lay Your Money Down: Court Says States Can OK Sports Betting
By Jessica Gresko and
Wayne Parry
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The
Supreme Court cleared
the way Monday for
states coast to coast to le-
galize betting on sports,
breaking a longtime ban
and creating a potential
financial boon for states
and the gambling indus-
try. The first bets could
be placed within weeks.
Despite
opposition
from the major sports
leagues and the Trump
administration, the high
court struck down a fed-
eral law that had barred
betting on football, bas-
ketball, baseball and oth-
er sports in most states.
States that want to take
advantage of the ruling
now will generally have
to pass legislation to al-
low sports books to open.
Some, including New
Jersey, which brought
the case to the Supreme
Court, have a head start.
Sports leagues had ex-
pressed concerns about
any expansion of sports
gambling. Their huge
businesses could be
badly harmed if people
thought the outcome of
games could be altered
by someone who had wa-
gered money on a certain
result.
However, the ruling
ICE cont’d from pg 8
ICE’s acting director,
pledged to increase
workplace enforcement
by “four or five times,”
opening a new front in
an immigration crack-
down that includes a 40
percent increase in de-
portation arrests and
initial funding for a bor-
der wall with Mexico. In
April, ICE agents made
97 arrests at a meatpack-
ing plant in rural Ten-
nessee with a helicopter
flying above, reminis-
cent of the high-profile
shows of force that were
common during Presi-
dent George W. Bush’s
administration.
Benner said the agency
will focus both on crim-
inal cases against em-
ployers as well deporting
employees who in the
country illegally. Illegal
hiring creates unfair ad-
vantages for companies,
encourages people to
come to the U.S. illegally,
results in document and
identity fraud and expos-
es workers to potentially
dangerous
conditions
without overtime pay
or health insurance, he
said.
also could be seen as
merely bringing an ac-
tivity out of the shadows
that many people already
see as a mainstream hob-
by. Americans wager
about $150 billion on
sports each year illegally,
according to the Amer-
ican Gaming Associa-
tion. The law the justices
struck down forbade
state-authorized sports
gambling with some ex-
ceptions and made Neva-
da the only state where
a person could wager
on the results of a single
game.
“
The legal-
ization
of sports
gambling
requires
an import-
ant policy
choice, but
the choice
is not ours
to make
Stock prices for casi-
no operators and equip-
ment makers surged
after the ruling was an-
nounced.
Gambling on sports
could quickly become
widely available, with
It remains to be seen
whether
immigration
authorities can perform
enough audits to compel
a similar degree of com-
pliance that the Internal
Revenue Service does on
personal and corporate
tax returns. One mea-
sure may be the number
of employees who volun-
tarily enroll in the feder-
al government’s E-Verify
system to electronically
confirm if a person is au-
thorized to work in the
U.S.
Mark Krikorian, ex-
ecutive director of the
Center for Immigration
Studies and an advocate
for an employer crack-
down, said the numbers
show that the administra-
tion is following through
on its pledge to scruti-
nize businesses but that
it could take a while for
a “culture of compliance”
to take hold.
“My hope is we’re going
to see some employers
perp-walked, but that’s
harder than it sounds,”
he said. “It’s hard to get
the suits at a company ...
They will have told low-
er-level managers what
to do with a wink and a
nod and there’s no record
of it.”
one research firm es-
timating that 32 states
would likely offer sports
betting within five years.
The ruling “opens up
the floodgates” for sports
gambling in any state
that wants to have it, said
Daniel Wallach, a sports
law expert in Florida.
The decision had been
eagerly anticipated by
gamblers and also states
that hope their cut of le-
galized sports betting
can help solve budget
problems. States that
have already laid the le-
gal groundwork include
New Jersey, where one
racetrack said it would
begin taking bets within
two weeks. Mississippi
and West Virginia have
also been preparing for
sports betting, and gam-
blers there could be plac-
ing bets as early as this
summer and certainly
before the NFL season
starts in September.
Delaware, too, could
quickly expand beyond
certain bets currently of-
fered at its casinos. Penn-
sylvania and New York
have also made moves
to begin sports gam-
bling. However, other
states that want to allow
sports betting could still
see several Super Bowls
come and go before peo-
ple there can place a legal
bet close to home.
The Trump adminis-
tration had urged the
high court to uphold the
law, surprising perhaps
because the president
AP PHOTO/SETH WENIG
Experts say Americans already wager about $150 billion on sports each year, but new ruling could ‘open
floodgates’ for legal gambling businesses
Monmouth Park racetrack is seen from a box in Oceanport, N.J., Monday, May 14, 2018. The Supreme
Court on Monday gave its go-ahead for states to allow gambling on sports across the nation, striking
down a federal law that barred betting on football, basketball, baseball and other sports in most states.
Monmouth Park has already set up a sports book operation and has previously estimated it could take
bets within two weeks of a favorable Supreme Court ruling.
is the former owner of
a New Jersey casino, the
Trump Taj Mahal, now
being remade into a Hard
Rock casino resort. All
four major U.S. profes-
sional sports leagues and
the NCAA also had urged
the court to uphold the
federal law, saying a gam-
bling expansion would
hurt the integrity of their
games. They also said
that with legal sports bet-
ting in the United States,
they’d have to spend a lot
more money monitoring
betting patterns and in-
vestigating suspicious
activity.
Sports gambling pro-
ponents argued that
the leagues already do
that work and that legal
sports betting will make
enforcement easier than
it is now, when most
bets in the U.S. are made
illegally. They say state
regulators are capable of
monitoring suspicious
bets, as is done in Neva-
da.
On Monday, NBA com-
missioner Adam Silver
and Major League Base-
ball issued statements
saying the “integrity”
of their games would
remain a priority. Rep-
resentatives of the Na-
tional Hockey League,
National Football League
and NCAA said they were
reviewing the court’s de-
cision.
Some saw other con-
cerns, including for
some gamblers. The rul-
ing “will likely increase
gambling participation
and gambling problems
unless steps are taken
to minimize harm,” said
Marlene Warner, the
president of the Nation-
al Council on Problem
Gambling’s board of di-
rectors. The council said
any government body
or sports league that re-
ceives a direct percent-
age or portion of sports
betting revenue should
dedicate some of it to
treat gambling problems.
The law the justices
struck down was passed
by Congress in 1992 and
called the Professional
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