In theory, May 14, 2018, should have marked a major shift in
America’s sports betting landscape. That day, the Supreme
Court, in Murphy v. NCAA, rejected the federal law that prohibited
most states from legalizing sports betting. Individual states, said
the justices, have the power to authorize and regulate sports
betting within their borders. To no one’s surprise, happy
sports fans interpreted the decision to mean that the
nation’s highest court had opened the floodgates to legal
internet and app-based sports betting.
That celebration was short-lived. At the outset, fan enthusiasm
was misplaced because the Supreme Court’s decision did not
legalize anything. It simply cleared the way for states to choose
whether and how to authorize sports betting. Although some states
moved quickly to authorize sports betting, including online and
app-based betting, those plans faced an unexpected challenge in
January 2019 when the Department of Justice released a new
interpretation