New Jersey’s effort to offer legalized sports betting was given new life Wednesday when a federal appeals court agreed to rehear en banc its challenge to prohibit betting on games.
It vacated an Aug. 25, 2015, decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia that upheld a lower-court ruling that had voided state legislation on sports gambling. The judges held then, in a 2-to-1 decision, that New Jersey’s efforts to allow its casinos and racetracks to take bets violated the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, or Paspa, which was passed in 1992.