MGM Resorts International wasted no time coming out with a glowing assessment of the recently released majority decision by the US Supreme Court to overturn a crucial – and much-reviled – federal ban on most sports betting activities in the country.
Six out of the nine SCOTUS members, including Chief Justice John Roberts, agreed that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) violated the 10th amendment of the US Constitution in several areas related to the powers inherent in the states to make their own decisions regarding gambling activities, namely sports wagering. The Supreme Court justices on Monday, May 15, 2018, released the results of their five-month deliberation on Murphy v. NCAA, which was brought before the court by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to near unanimous praise from the American gaming establishment, and MGM Resorts was among that number.
MGM Resorts International, the owner and operator of Atlantic City’s most profitable and prolific casino, the Borgata resort, said the SCOTUS decision to strike PASPA from the federal rolls represents a tremendous win for the states and sports betting in New Jersey as they look to “protect consumers.” Presumably, killing PASPA will allow interested states to start offering their own legal sports betting outlets, which could simultaneously help rake in millions of dollars in taxable revenues from a global sports wagering market worth an estimated $150 billion to $250 billion while protecting players from the presumed pitfalls of the gray market sports gambling world. What exactly those pitfalls might be is not elaborated upon, but the fact remains that so long as sports betting is taking place at legal offshore sportsbook sites none of the handle taken in can be taxed by the states, and that is what MGM alluded to in their media release from Monday morning.
"We look forward to working with legislators and policy makers to achieve a regulatory outcome that benefits states and consumers alike while ensuring the integrity of sports,” the MGM communications department wrote in the company’s media release issued just minutes after the SCOTUS decision hit the airwaves.
MGM is without a doubt one of the biggest names in the casino gambling scene in the United States and abroad and it therefore stands to reason that the company could stand to benefit greatly in terms of bigger bottom line now that sports betting is more widely legal again throughout the nation. That said, no plans have yet been announced as to whether the Atlantic City Borgata or any of the company’s other casinos will start offering sports betting options in states where this was previously disallowed per the federal law. Nevertheless, MGM is apparently confident that it is in a great place to expand its portfolio and get a cut of the newly legalized sports betting marketplace nationwide.
"Having spent decades building trust with regulators, successfully operating sports books in Nevada, and hosting the world's leading sporting events, MGM Resorts International is extremely well positioned for a post-PASPA environment," the MGM media release concluded.