Going out on a limb, I. Nelson Rose predicts the Supreme Court will rule in New Jersey‘s favor with regard to sports betting. As he 
notes, “[Chief Justice John Roberts] and the other conservative members of the Court would like to knock out every federal law that prevents states from making their own decisions.” American Gaming Association President Geoff Freeman risked counting his chickens before they hatch, saying, “Today’s decision, despite the eventual outcome in the court, is another nail in the coffin of the failed federal prohibition of sports betting … Whether the court rules it unconstitutional or not, Congress can no longer ignore the failings of this law over the past 25 years.”
His bromance with Donald Trump well and truly over, Garden State Gov. Chris Christie (R) thinks the present administration is in the enemy camp on the issue. He can take consolation in the views of Tulane University sports-law boffin Gabe Feldman, who opines, “The New Jersey sports betting case may ultimately be a footnote in the eventual legalization of sports gambling in the United States.” Other pundits argue that the ban is an anachronism, while noting that the Supremes’ decision will hinge upon Tenth Amendment issues. Looking past the legalese, UNLV‘s Dr. David G. Schwartz says that there’s been a relative lack of movement for sports betting because it is a low-profit enterprise when compared to lotteries. (See autoplay video.)
As far as the down and distance of the sports-betting debate is concerned, Christie said it best. “We’re not declaring victory but at least we’re in the game and that’s where we want to be,” he remarked.
* As long as we are on the subject of the Trump administration, S&G would like to draw your attention to an excellent article by Dave Palermo that examines the likely pros and cons of its relationship to Indian country. Depending on what was most expedient for him at the 
time, Trump himself has been on all sides of the tribal-gaming debate. The overarching conclusion of Palermo’s examination of the nascent Trump administration’s policy to date is that we are likely to see a slowing of the growth in tribal gaming but there’s no reason yet to break out the lifejackets.
However, for the present at least, land-into-trust applications “will slow dramatically,” in part because they will all be routed through Bureau of Indian Affairs headquarters in Washington, D.C., instead of being decided on a regional basis. Also, acting Deputy Secretary James Cason, a returnee from the George W. Bush administration, was responsible for the stranglehold that the latter put on land-into-trust applications. Interior officials who feel that the Barack Obama 
administration overcompensated, particularly toward the end, are going to want to put the brakes back on land transfers. “While the last-minute nature of these actions does not necessarily imply wrongdoing, it begs scrutiny,” wrote Rep. Rob Bishop (R), chairman of the House Resources Committee, citing “concerns with off-reservation gambling.” (It should be noted that casinos played on a microscopic role in land transfers under Obama.)
“The pressure is building to swing the pendulum back the other way. They’re looking to change things when it comes to Indian lands in a way that will hurt us,” complains former Obama counsel Bryan Newland. “Though tribes and the BIA now have a more than a half-million acres of new lands to manage, Trump seeks to slash $15 million from the real estate staff managing such lands,” adds former Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Washburn.
The consensus is that land-into-trust applications are going to get harder to obtain. T”hey are going to have a difficult path, regardless of what the administration policy is,” says tribal-gaming expert Alan Meister. Several commentators say there is room for hope, with one noting that it was Cason who issued the letter saying that a tribal satellite casino Connecticut was OK under IGRA. With the Interior Department presently understaffed, it’s a waiting game to see what the ultimate direction of Indian-related policy will be.
* Although it stumbled out of the gate, the Golden Nugget is now the unlikely leader in New Jersey’s Internet gaming industry. The adverse beginning, perversely, worked in the casino’s favor.
