Judge refuses to block new Arizona sports betting law
Source: Associated Press
Judge refuses to block new Arizona sports betting law
By BOB CHRISTIE
September 6, 2021
PHOENIX (AP) A judge on Monday evening refused to block a new Arizona law allowing sports gambling to be run by professional sports teams in a decision that will allow the major gambling expansion start as planned later this week.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge James Smith refused to issue an injunction barring sports betting from starting Thursday. The ruling came just hours after he held an unusual Labor Day hearing on the request filed by one Native American tribe.
The Yavapai-Prescott Indian Tribe wanted the law, which allows professional sports teams to get licenses to run sports gambling, declared unconstitutional. They argued it violates the states Voter Protection Act by illegally amending the 2002 voter initiative that authorized tribal gambling in Arizona by allowing nontribal groups to have gambling operations without asking voters to weigh in. Proposition 202 restricted gambling outside tribal reservations.
But Smith wrote that Proposition 202 regulated the types of gambling allowed at tribal casinos, not other kinds of betting.
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