Sports Betting Coming To Maryland? Supreme Court Ruling Paves Way

ANNAPOLIS, MD — Monday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down a federal ban on sports gambling as unconstitutional could pave the way for legalizing sports betting in Maryland, reports say. Gaming industry representatives want to make it legal here in the state, a move professional sports officials have supported, provided their leagues get a cut of the profits.

The owners of Horseshoe Casino Baltimore, Maryland Live and MGM National Harbor in Prince George's County have said states should determine if they want to allow sports betting. Casinos would have rooms where clerks accept bets as odds are displayed on live boards, reports The Baltimore Sun.

Legislation was introduced in this year's session to start the process of getting a sports betting question on the November ballot, but the Maryland House and Senate could not agree on the details. The Sun says the state constitution must be amended by voters in order to allow sports betting.

Joe Weinberg, managing partner of The Cordish Companies, which own Maryland Live! Casino & Hotel in Hanover, praised the ruling and the return of the issue to the states.

"The court’s decision is both a victory for state’s rights and for the millions of Americans who want to legally bet on sports in a safe, regulated environment," Weinberg said in a statement to Patch. "In Maryland, the casino industry has invested in excess of $2 billion in new world-class facilities, directly employed tens of thousands of people and to date, generated over $3 billion in tax revenue to the state. Sports betting should be made available exclusively through the regulated casinos in Maryland, where it is best positioned to protect consumers and maximize tax revenues to the state."

(For more news like this, find your local Patch here. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here.)

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 — Maryland, along with Illinois, Indiana, California, Kansas, Kentucky, 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

Photo via Shutterstock