NFL goes to court to block sports betting

The National Football League has fired another salvo in its quest to squelch sports betting in Delaware, asking the state Supreme Court to let its attorneys make oral arguments during a
hearing on the matter.

The four-page motion comes on the heels of a legal brief the league filed last week in opposition to Gov. Jack Markell's proposal, which passed the General Assembly last week.The bill, which Markell signed Friday, allows the state's three racetrack casinos to offer wagers on sporting events. Casino operators hope to have the games ready by the start of the football season in September.

The league hopes that the justices will derail the plan by declaring sports betting unconstitutional in Delaware. The state constitution bans all forms of gambling except lotteries under state control for the purpose of raising money; slot machines at the casinos are considered video lotteries.

In papers last week, the league argued that sports betting involves a high degree of skill, disqualifying such games as a lottery determined mainly by chance. The NFL also urged the court to invalidate the law and require the development of "clear standards" about how the sports lottery would work.

The NFL hopes to advance those arguments in a May 21 hearing in Dover, league attorneys wrote in papers filed Friday but released Monday by the governor's office in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. Two Wilmington law firms appointed by the court will argue opposing sides of the issue at the hearing in Dover.

"The NFL can assist the court by supplementing the efforts of counsel in this matter of great interest to the NFL and the public," wrote Kenneth Nachbar, a Wilmington attorney hired by the league.

In a letter to attorneys Monday, the high court's clerk wrote that if attorney Lawrence Ashby, appointed by Chief Justice Myron T. Steele to argue against the constitutionality of sports betting, would share some of his allotted time at the Dover hearing with the league, one of its attorneys could argue before the court.