Sports Betting Coming To Illinois? Supreme Court Ruling Paves Way

SPRINGFIELD, IL — Monday's Supreme Court ruling striking down a federal ban on sports gambling as unconstitutional could pave the way for legalizing sports betting in Illinois. State lawmakers are already considering a plan to make it legal here in the Prairie State, a move professional sports officials have supported, provided their leagues get a cut of the profits.

A new state law under consideration would legalize betting on amateur, professional and college games, allowing casinos to take sports bets in person and online from Illinois residents only. The state would then tax the sports betting industry, a move Rockford-area Democrat Sen. Steve Stadelman said would be a "panacea for the budget problems" in Illinois, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Officials for the NBA and MLB discussed the proposal — which was contingent on the Supreme Court overturning the federal ban — at an Illinois Senate committee hearing last month.

The legal challenge to the federal sports betting ban came after then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie signed a law allowing it at casinos and racetracks in the state.

Justice Samuel Alito delivered the majority opinion Monday, saying "the legalization of sports gambling requires an important policy choice, but the choice is not ours to make."

"Congress can regulate sports gambling directly, but if it elects not to do so, each state is free to act on its own," he said. "Our job is to interpret the law Congress has enacted and decide whether it is consistent with the constitution."

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor dissented. Ginsburg wrote that Congress "permissibly exercised its authority to regulate commerce by instructing states and private parties to refrain from operating sports-gambling schemes."

Christie celebrated the ruling on Twitter.

Seven states — Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Iowa, New York, Mississippi and West Virginia — have already prepared legislation to make sports betting legal in anticipation of the Supreme Court ruling. Thirteen others — Illinois along with Indiana, California, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and South Carolina — have plans under consideration to legalize sports betting in their respective states, according to CNBC.

Read more via New Jersey Patch

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