by KYW's John Ostapkovich
A federal appeals court in Philadelphia has dealt a blow to the Delaware Lottery's plan for single-game wagering on professional and college sporting events (see related story).
On Monday, a three-judge panel in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the State of Delaware from going ahead on September 1st with its plan to expand the state lottery games to offer single-game betting.
One funny thing about the ruling was that it was not in answer to the question initally being asked. Both sides in the dispute had come to the court to argue over a temporary injunction. They had planned to argue over the merits of the underlying case in December.
But the three-judge panel apparently decided that it could not let the plan go forward with the question unanswered about whether the lottery plan violated a 1992 federal ban on sports wagering.
The decision came after the court heard almost two hours of argument from attorneys for the state and for professional sports leagues and the NCAA.
The leagues were challenging the denial of an injunction that would have prevented the betting from beginning next month. Attorneys for Delaware argued that the leagues had not met the requirements for an injunction.
But instead of ruling on the injunction, the appeals court turned directly to the league's claim that the sports betting would violate federal law even though there is an exemption for Delaware (as there are for Nevada and a couple of other states) to conduct some kinds of sports betting.
The judges decided that the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 ("PASPA") blocked the Delaware plan, which in court was called a "scheme." Kenneth Nachbar argued for the NFL and other sports groups:
"We felt that the Delaware scheme violated PASPA. The court has ruled that way. We couldn't be happier."
The judges ruled that Delaware could still offer three-game parleys on NFL games -- as it did in 1976 -- under its exemption in PASPA.
What does Monday's ruling mean for sports betting in Nevada? Nothing, since Nevada had already been offering single-game wagering when the 1992 law was passed. Three other states -- Orgegon, Montana, and New Jersey -- also received grandfathering exemptions, but New Jersey never took the steps to take advantage of its.
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