By Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday paved the way for states to legalise sports betting in a defeat for the major American sports leagues, endorsing New Jersey’s bid to allow such wagering and striking down a 1992 federal law that prohibited it in most places.

The court upheld the legality of a 2014 state law permitting sports betting at New Jersey casinos and horse racetracks and voided the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. Some states see sports betting, like lotteries, as a potentially important source of tax revenue.

The ruling, which sent shares in gaming companies and casinos higher in brisk trading, takes the United States a step closer to legal sports betting in numerous states, perhaps nationwide, rather than just in select places such as Nevada, home to the gambling capital Las Vegas. The current illegal sports betting market is worth billions of dollars annually.

“New Jersey has long been the lead advocate in fighting this inherently unequal law, and today’s ruling will finally allow for authorized facilities in New Jersey to take the same bets that are legal in other states in our country,” New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat, said in a statement.

The federal law at issue had effectively prohibited sports gambling in all states except Nevada and, to a limited extent, Delaware, Montana and Oregon.

In addition to New Jersey, five other states – Connecticut, Mississippi, New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia – already have sports betting laws in place that would allow them to move quickly, according to a Fitch Ratings report. Industry analysts have said that dozens of states might legalise sports betting if legally permitted.