By WFAN.com
A landmark ruling by the Supreme Court on Monday struck down a federal law banning sports betting in all states but Nevada.
Michael McCann, legal analysts for Sports Illustrated, join to WFAN's "Carlin, Maggie & Bart" on Monday afternoon to break down what the ruling means exactly. Here are excerpts from the interview.
CMB: What does this ultimately mean for legalization across the country of sports betting?
McCann: I think the big takeaway is that states will now be able to decide whether they want to offer betting, and a bunch of them will do it. I've seen different estimates of 25, of 32. It seems like a majority of states will go the legislative route and pass laws that allow different gambling operators the right to get a license and to offer consumers the chance to bet on sports. Not all states will. I'm sure some states will continue to keep it outlawed.
CMB: Players haven't been allowed to do endorsements with casinos and other gambling-related businesses. Can you see this presenting another argument from the players' point of view that the leagues are making money off gambling but the players can't?
McCann: Leagues have argued that they have a right to get essentially a percentage of the amount of money that's generated through sports betting because they're going to take that money to go back and safeguard the game from corrupt influences. Others view it as sort of the league just wants a cut. From what I understand, the NBA and players association won't have any issue with that. It looks like they'll share any of that cut. It's not clear what's going to happen in the NFL, NHL and baseball, and it will be an interesting issue where the players have just as much of a right, if not more, you could argue -- they're the ones out there playing the games, and why wouldn't they get some of this money that could be going to leagues?
CMB: What is your read on the NFL's take after today?
McCann: I think the NFL will probably follow the other leagues and raise similar arguments. I don't think they're going to depart too widely, but they are probably trying to assess how this could potentially be a labor issue. The NBA and the players association in the NBA get along pretty well relative to other leagues and their players associations. Obviously, we know that the NFL and NFLPA have a much more acrimonious relationship, and I wonder if that's led to some reticence by the NFL that they don't want to come out with a strong view because they know that the players association will have its own perspective, and this could end up becoming a labor issue.
CMB: What are the next steps here? How quickly do you think this could come into effect?
McCann: In New Jersey and in a few other states, it's going to be pretty fast. Because they were prepared for this. They passed laws that would go into effect if this decision occurred, and that condition's been met. So those laws should go into effect. Whether they could bet tonight, I don't know if it's going to be that fast because there are some regulatory issues that will have to be sorted out because once there's a licensing procedure in place, there has to accompanying guidelines and the state has to fund them, so there's still some complexities. But I think in a handful of states, it's going to be pretty fast, whereas in other states, it's going to be a while. It's going to be months.
