NFL Turns to Courts to Stop State Sports Betting Plan

The NFL's attorneys have filed a brief with the Delaware Supreme Court asking that the sports gambling lottery be struck down for violating lottery laws that require games to be luck-based.

The National Football League, having found that its disapproval is not enough to prevent Delaware legislators from acting in the state's best interest in installing a sports betting program, is turning to the judicial system to get its way. The NFL's attorneys have filed a brief with the Delaware Supreme Court asking that the sports gambling lottery be struck down for violating lottery laws that require games to be luck-based.

Governor Jack Markell had already asked the court to render an opinion on the sports wagering bill. The NFL says the justices should throw out the law and demand the legislature set up a framework of "clear standards" for lottery games.

Ironically to many poker players and gambling patrons, the NFL is contending that betting on sports is a game mostly of skill, with chance being the lesser of the determinants. Delaware's law on the lottery states games must be predominantly chance.

Poker laws frequently are contested on the basis that poker, as a game of skill, does not qualify for laws against gambling which define illegal gaming as games of chance.

"Chance does not mean pure chance," wrote Andre Bouchard, an attorney presenting the court with a brief in favor of the law. He added that industry-standard betting lines have prevented gamblers from winning "consistently on the basis of skill against such betting lines."

"If a game is predominantly one of chance," wrote the NFL's legal team., "it will not matter who is doing the picking -- a skilled expert, or a monkey choosing at random."

Perhaps the court will use that statement and then examine such evidence as found on ESPN.com, which documented a two-year contest between columnist Bill Simmons and his wife. Each picked all NFL games against the spread, Simmons using his encyclopedic professional knowledge of the NFL, his wife picking based on uniform colors and feelings regarding cities represented.

After two years, Simmons' wife had picked more accurately both seasons. She was slightly over fifty percent, Simmons slightly under. This would seem to use the NFL's own argument to defeat it.