Philadelphia Court Rules
Delaware Sports Betting Plan Illegal
 September
2 - On Monday this week,
a U.S. appeals court ruled that a plan by Delaware to allow
sports betting
violates federal law,
siding with major sports leagues who argued it would promote
game fixing.
A 3-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third
Circuit
ruled against the state which wanted to allow betting on single
games in all the major sports
from September 1 at its three racetrack betting locations.
Delaware,
which is seeking additional revenue to overcome an $800 million
budget deficit,
would have been the second state after Nevada to allow betting
on sporting events.
Circuit judge Theodore McKee said the Delaware plan would
violate the 1992 law.
Attorneys for the U.S. professional leagues for football,
baseball, basketball and hockey had sought an injunction
against the plan on the grounds that sports betting would
encourage game fixing and violate a 1992 federal law that sought
to prevent the spread of sports betting.
Said Kenneth Nachbar, an attorney representing the leagues, 'They
clearly have ruled that what the state plans is illegal.
The court may well issue a permanent injunction. The closer you
get to single-game betting, the more
you call into question the integrity of what happens on the
field or in the court.'
Nachbar argued during a two-hour hearing that the proposed
plan would have undermined the integrity of the games
by raising questions about whether results were influenced by
gambling.
In response,
Andy Bouchard,
an attorney representing the state of Delaware,
argued that the state's proposal meets the definition of a
lottery, as
allowed by the 1992 law, and so does not violate the its intent
of preventing the spread of gambling.
'We are doing exactly what we are permitted to do under the
law,' he said.
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