Supreme Court Ruling Means Legalized Sports Gambling Could Be On The Way

In a 7-2 ruling handed down by the Supreme Court Monday, the state of New Jersey has won its case challenging the power of the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act according to reports.

The law was intended to protect the integrity of the country's most popular sports and would block States from setting up their own sports betting books, except in Nevada which predated the law.

This ruling could lead other states to start up sports books as a source of government revenue.

Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie led the charge against the federal law using an argument that revolved around States' Rights and the 10th amendment and now that his side has won, we could be seeing the dawn of a nation wide legalized sports betting era.

The 1992 law did not squash sports gambling in the United States, more it forced it underground and overseas with some experts estimating that gambling on sports is an industry of over $150 billion. Nevada (where sports betting is legal) accounts for around five billion of that, by those same estimates.

The NCAA and the big four leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL) had all successfully blocked New Jersey in lower courts. Now the push from those establishments could be for federal standards of legalized sports betting rather than state to state differences in what would be legal and would not.