U.S. Appeals Court falls back on PASPA law

The appeals court ruled in August that Delaware was limited to parlay betting, or gambling on multiple games, and only on National Football League contests. The state went ahead and now offers such betting on at least three NFL games.

The North American professional leagues for baseball, basketball, football and hockey, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) all argued that Delaware's sports lottery plan violated the 1992 law. The law, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, prohibits betting on sports but exceptions were granted to Delaware, Nevada, Montana and Oregon because they previously operated some forms of sports gambling.

Delaware offered parlay bets on NFL games for a few months in 1976. The appeals court ruled that under the federal law Delaware was generally limited to what it offered then. In appealing to the Supreme Court, attorneys for the state argued that the appeals court wrongly concluded that the U.S. Congress had prohibited Delaware from adopting a sports lottery scheme as a way to balance its budget. Delaware had expected at least an estimated $17 million in revenues from the plan in the 2010 fiscal year.

Attorneys for the professional sports leagues and the NCAA asked the Supreme Court to reject the appeal. They said $17 million was trivial compared to the state's $3.1 billion budget.