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Judge refused to block new Arizona sports betting law

Doug Ducey
Ross D. Franklin/AP
FILE - In this April 15, 2021, file photo, surrounded by Arizona legislators, Republican Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey speaks at a bill signing allowing a major expansion of sports betting in Arizona at an event at the Heard Museum in Phoenix. Arizona's move to allow sport gambling outside of tribal casinos was in the hands of a judge Monday, Sept. 6, 2021, as he mulled a challenge to the new law brought by one Native American tribe against Ducey and the head of the state Gaming Department. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge James Smith held an unusual Labor Day hearing on the request to block the law that allows sports betting and fantasy sports gambling for the first time in Arizona. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
Doug Ducey
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PHOENIX (AP) — A judge is refusing 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.

Monday's evening's decision from Maricopa County Superior Court Judge James Smith means sports betting can start Thursday barring a successful appeal.

The ruling came just hours after he held an unusual Labor Day hearing on the request filed by the Yavapai-Prescott Indian Tribe.

Smith rejected all the tribe's arguments, including that the new sports betting law violated the state constitution.

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