New Jersey horseracing industry take sports betting fight to Supreme Court

Monmouth Park operator claims PASPA is costing it $1m a week

New Jersey’s horseracing industry has filed an appeal with the Supreme Court in an effort to gain legal sports betting in the state.

Specifically, the appeal asks the Supreme Court to take another look at a federal appeals court ruling in August which struck down New Jersey’s latest attempt to legalize sports betting.

The New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, which operates Monmouth Park racetrack, based its argument on the economic benefits brought by the racing industry to the state, arguing it would go out of business without sports betting.

“The only business revenue stream that can save Monmouth Park at the present time is revenue from sports betting,” Ron Riccio, the horsemen’s attorney wrote to the nation’s highest court.

Riccio said the federal ban on sports betting is costing Monmouth $1m in revenues a week, writing: “While Monmouth Park suffers this significant injury, the Leagues continue to reap enormous profits on daily fantasy sports where the Leagues are actively promoting such betting and/or owning daily fantasy betting platforms that are now authorized by law in numerous states despite the fact that PASPA may prohibit daily fantasy wagering.”

The filing is supported by New Jersey Senator Ray Lesniak, who said earlier this week he would “fight the NFL all the way to the Supreme Court”.

“Winning this fight for legalised sports betting means hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity and saving thousands of jobs for New Jersey,” Lesniak added.

It is up to the Supreme Court to choose whether it hears the case but it is unlikely do so, given that the court hears about 80 cases a year out of the 7,000 or so submitted to it, and there is no disagreement between multiple federal circuit courts on the issue.