As we reported last night, the NFL has joined with other sports leagues, professional and college, to challenge the legality of Delaware’s new sports betting plan.
The suit was filed today (actually, “moments ago” as of this posting) in federal court in Delaware.
The action, in which the NFL, the NBA, the NHL, Major League Baseball, and the NCAA are plaintiffs, attacks Delaware’s intention to allow single-game wagering on pro and college sporting events.
We’ve obtained a copy of the complaint, and we hope to sift through the legal mumbo jumbo and explain in more detail the specific arguments being made.
For now, here’s a quick (sort of) summary.
The case focuses on the question of whether the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 applies to Delaware’s new betting program. The 1992 law, which prohibits states from operating a lottery or betting scheme involving pro or college games, granted an exemption to states that had such a program from 1976 to 1990.
Delaware is one of four states that fall within the exception.
The current lawsuit does not attack Delaware’s plan to permit “parlay card” betting, since Delaware utilized that form of wagering in 1976. Instead, the argument is that, because Delaware did not permit single-game wagering in 1976, any attempt to do so now falls beyond the exception to the 1992 law.
This essentially means that the NFL and the other leagues are not fighting, at least for now, Delaware’s intention to allow parlay betting on pro and college games.
