Judge: New Jersey can't launch sports betting

TRENTON – A federal judge said Gov. Chris Christie can't launch sports betting at Monmouth Park Sunday.

The ruling late Friday by U.S. District Court Judge Michael Shipp puts in place a temporary restraining order that will prevent the Oceanport racetrack from taking bets on this weekend's NFL games.

Track officials said they were expecting a crowd of 10,000 Sunday to bet on Jets-Bills, Eagles-Cardinals and other NFL games. The track was scheduled to open 7 a.m. Sunday in order to accommodate customers wishing to wager on the Lions-Falcons game being played in London at 9:30 a.m. ET.

Christie and the racetrack were named in a complaint filed early this week by the NFL and other sports leagues alleging the state's expanded gambling plans ran afoul of a federal sports betting ban that covers 45 other states.

The restraining order stops the betting operation from starting until the complaint gets a full hearing in the future.

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The parties on Thursday completed their legal filings to Shipp in the dispute. Christie's attorneys claimed operator-regulated sports betting at Monmouth Park comports with a ruling last year by a federal appeals court.

New Jersey has been trying to buck a 1992 federal law intended to restrict sports betting to Nevada, Delaware, Oregon, and Montana.

New Jersey voters by a wide margin approved a sports gambling referendum in 2011 and Christie signed a sports betting bill a few months later, but the leagues successfully sued to stop the state.

The state changed strategy this year after an appeal failed and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take the case. Christie's attorney general last month said the state would not prosecute racetracks and casinos for taking bets on pro and college sports contests and he signed a revised sports betting bill last week.

The NFL, NBA, NHL, Major League Baseball and the NCAA filed a complaint alleging that New Jersey is "in clear and flagrant violation of federal law to accomplish what it unsuccessfully attempted to do nearly three years ago: sponsor, operate, advertise, promote, license, or authorize gambling on amateur and professional sports at state-licensed casinos and horse racetracks."

Attorneys for the state and Monmouth Park in filings said preventing sports betting's launch would be the "death knell'' for the Oceanport racetrack by cutting off a needed source of new revenue.