The NFL had been threatening to sue Delaware if the state went ahead with plans for sports betting this fall, on Friday they went through with it.
The NFL, which had been pro sports’ biggest opponent to Delaware’s plans, followed through. It also convinced some powerful friends to join in the fight.
In federal court in Wilmington, the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball, the NHL and the NCAA filed a complaint to stop Gov. Jack Markell and the Delaware State Lottery Office from taking bets on their games.
Delaware is one of four states legally exempt from the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), a federal law which prohibits states from being in the bookmaking business.
However, the state hasn’t had sports betting since a failed attempt at parlay betting in the mid-1970s. Now, faced with an $800 million budget deficit, Governor Jack Markell is turning to sports betting to hopefully raise between $50-$100 million for his state.
Delaware has plans to begin allowing betting this fall, in time for the NFL season, at its three racinos, which house racetracks and slot machines. At Dover Downs, near the state capitol, space is already being carved out from an unused restaurant to make room for a new sports book. And, while the leagues are asking for an injunction to stop any kind of betting that will cause, “irreparable harm to their reputation and goodwill,” plans in Delaware continue to move forward.
The leagues think those plans are against the law.
NFL vice president Joe Browne said that the league is sensitive to economic issues in Delaware and other states. He said that the NFL wrote to Markell on April 7, telling him the league would be willing to discuss ways to help close the state’s budget gap — “short of using our games as betting vehicles.”
According to Browne, Markell responded five weeks later “that he was signing legislation that day which, in effect, uses our games as betting vehicles.”
The complaint alleges that sports betting in Delaware violates the 1992 anti-sports betting law, as well as the state law which mandates all forms of gambling be games of chance, not skill. The leagues argue that, by going from parlay to single game betting, chance gives way to skill.
In May, the court ruled that the state law allowing sports betting didn’t conflict with the state constitution, but the justices also said, “we cannot opine on the constitutionality of single game bets.”
At this point only time will tell what the verdict will be. I would think the economic woes of our countries states would take a higher precedence then that of the NFL, and other leagues.
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