A New Jersey federal judge last month rejected New Jersey’s latest attempt to legalize sports betting, ruling that a state statute that repealed New Jersey’s long-standing prohibition on sports betting at casinos and racetracks violates the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA)—a federal law banning sports betting across the nation. New Jersey had resurrected its long-standing bid to legalize sports betting through a series of novel but risky legal maneuvers that seized on language from a 2013 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. In that decision, NCAA v. Christie (Christie I), the Third Circuit ruled that an earlier New Jersey law authorizing sports gambling was unconstitutional under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Most legal observers had assumed that New Jersey’s effort to overturn the federal law had concluded in June when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the state’s petition for certiorari from the Third Circuit’s ruling. But, with its casino industry reeling, New Jersey breathed new life into an issue that has drawn nationwide attention and has pushed professional sports leagues to grapple with the ethical and legal boundaries of sports wagering in the United States. While New Jersey’s latest loss in federal district court was not unexpected, the ruling sets up a renewed showdown in the Third Circuit where New Jersey hopes to break its losing streak once and for all.

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