In this March 15, 2018 photo, people watch coverage of the first round of the NCAA college basketball tournament at the Westgate Superbook sports book in Las Vegas. The Supreme Court has struck down a... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this March 15, 2018 photo, people watch coverage of the first round of the NCAA college basketball tournament at the Westgate Superbook sports book in Las Vegas. The Supreme Court has struck down a federal law that bars gambling on football, basketball, baseball and other sports in most states, giving... (Associated Press) 
 
 WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday struck down a federal law that bars gambling on football, basketball, baseball and other sports in most states, giving states the go-ahead to legalize betting on sports. 
 
 The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to strike down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. The 1992 law barred state-authorized sports gambling with some exceptions. It made Nevada the only state where a person could wager on the results of a single game. 
 
 One research firm estimated before the ruling that if the Supreme Court were to strike down the law, 32 states would likely offer sports betting within five years. 
 
 "The legalization of sports gambling requires an important policy choice, but the choice is not ours to make. Congress can regulate sports gambling directly, but if it elects not to do so, each state is free to act on its own. Our job is to interpret the law Congress has enacted and decide whether it is consistent with the Constitution. PASPA is not," Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the court. 
 
 The court's decision came in a case from New Jersey, which has fought for years to legalize gambling on sports at casinos and racetracks in the state. Then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said after arguments in the case in December that if justices sided with the state, bets could be taken "within two weeks" of a decision. 
 
 On Monday, after the ruling was announced, Christie tweeted that it was a "great day for the rights of states and their people to make their own decisions." The state's current governor, Democrat Phil Murphy, also cheered the ruling, saying he was "thrilled" to see the high court strike down the "arbitrary ban." He said he looks forward to working with the legislature to "enact a law authorizing and regulating sports betting in the very near future." 
 
 It's possible that the first to market with sports betting in New Jersey will be a racetrack at the Jersey shore. Monmouth Park has already set up a sports book operation and has previously estimated it could take bets within two weeks of a favorable Supreme Court ruling. 
 
 Tony Rodio, president of Tropicana Entertainment, said his Atlantic City casino will "absolutely" offer sports betting once it can get it up and running. "It's been a long time coming," he said. 
 
 More than a dozen states had supported New Jersey, which argued that Congress exceeded its authority when it passed the law barring states from authorizing sports betting. New Jersey said the Constitution allows Congress to pass laws barring wagering on sports, but Congress can't require states to keep sports gambling prohibitions in place. 
 
 All four major U.S. professional sports leagues, the NCAA and the federal government had urged the court to uphold the federal law. In court, the NBA, NFL, NHL and Major League Baseball had argued that New Jersey's gambling expansion would hurt the integrity of their games. Outside court, however, leaders of all but the NFL have shown varying degrees of openness to legalized sports gambling. 
 
 The American Gaming Association estimates that Americans illegally wager about $150 billion on sports each year. 
 
 New Jersey has spent years and millions of dollars in legal fees trying to legalize sports betting at its casinos, racetracks and former racetracks. In 2012, with voters' support, New Jersey lawmakers passed a law allowing sports betting, directly challenging the 1992 federal law which says states can't "authorize by law" sports gambling. The four major professional sports leagues and the NCAA sued, and the state lost in court. 
 
 In 2014, New Jersey tried a different tactic by repealing laws prohibiting sports gambling at casinos and racetracks. It argued taking its laws off the books was different from authorizing sports gambling. The state lost again and then took the case to the Supreme Court. 
 
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 Associated Press reporter Wayne Parry contributed reporting from Atlantic City, New Jersey. 
 
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 Follow Jessica Gresko on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jessicagresko ||||| The U.S. government disrupted the weekend—and life—plans of Cory Albertson and thousands of others like him who earn much of their living playing poker online. 
 
 Federal prosecutors have targeted the three largest online poker companies doing business in the U.S., charging their founders with money laundering and bank fraud and seizing five of the companies' domain names. Alexandra Berzon has details. 
 
 For nearly eight years, Mr. Albertson has camped out every Sunday on his couch with his laptop to play No Limit Hold'Em with thousands of other online players at PokerStars or Full Tilt Poker. He might pocket $500 for the day, or lose money, but sometimes he'd win big, as much as $75,000 at a time, adding a nice sum to his income as a freelance writer in Austin, Texas. 
 
 The U.S. Justice Department announced Friday it was blocking players in the U.S. from accessing Full Tilt Poker, along with other online poker sites, accusing 11 people of bank fraud and of illegally operating gambling websites. The government seized accounts run by the sites that held money stored by players. 
 
 The crackdown came after years of tension between the sites and the U.S. government, which long held that online gambling is illegal. The case could test the claim by the poker site operators that operating a poker site online isn't illegal because, they say, as a game that involves skill, poker is not gambling. 
 
 The government action shined a light on a game that had become a vocation for thousands of Americans and pastime for millions of casual players. Online poker has spawned an industry of celebrity players, bloggers, coaches and television shows sponsored by the sites now charged with criminal activity. 
 
 "We understood there were issues," said Jonathan Wein, a professional poker player who runs a business teaching poker online. "We never assumed there'd be some type of black-out overnight." 
 
 Congress passed a law in 2006 that forbid financial institutions from processing financial transactions related to online gambling. That made it much more difficult for websites to accept money from players and pay them back. 
 
 Many sites left the U.S after the law passed. Others, namely Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, built lucrative businesses by catering to U.S. players from overseas. PokerStars is based in the Isle of Man, Full Tilt is regulated by Alderney in the U.K.'s Channel Islands and Absolute Poker, another site, is in Costa Rica. 
 
 The approach seemed to work, allowing the sites to build a market that last year included about 1.8 million people in the U.S. who played poker online for money, according to PokerScout, which tracks online poker site data. Other organizations say there are many more players. 
 
 The sites saw around $16 billion in wagers from U.S. players last year, with the bulk of that taken in by Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, according to PokerScout. 
 
 The indictment last week and accompanying civil complaint alleged that the companies skirted the 2006 ban on electronic transfers related to gambling by working with third parties to create fictitious websites for fake companies to trick banks into thinking that it was not an Internet poker site. One was Green2YourGreen, an apparent environmentally-friendly household products company. In later years the sites invested in small U.S. banks in exchange for their cooperation in processing funds, the government alleges. 
 
 Enlarge Image Close Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Last year about 1.8 million people in the U.S. played poker online for money, according to PokerScout. 
 
 Full Tilt said in a statement that it "is, and has always been committed to preserving the integrity of the game and abiding by the law." Representatives for PokerStars and Full Tilt didn't respond to requests for comment. Absolute Poker representatives could not be reached. 
 
 Regular online players said in interviews that while they were aware that financial transactions had become difficult under U.S. law, they turned a blind eye to the specifics. 
 
 "All of the fake websites and phony bank accounts—that was something the players assumed was taking place," Mr. Albertson said. "But we're totally detached from that. We didn't know exactly how it works. We just knew it did work." 
 
 In 2009, the government began seizing bank accounts managed by third-party processors, such as Allied Systems Inc. and Account Services, which held millions of dollars of player money. Poker players say that their money was reimbursed by the sites. Yet since then, cashing out began to take more time and checks were issued under numerous different account names, the players said. 
 
 In a statement on its website PokerStars said that players would get their money back. 
 
 Mr. Wein said he had about $15,000 in his poker accounts. More than the fate of that money, he's concerned that poker playing and teaching won't be as lucrative now. "Our entire business plan has changed overnight," he said. 
 
 Players may move to other sites, although many say they're hesitant to do so. The number of U.S. players using Bodog, a gambling website that wasn't named in the government suit, showed a 21% rise in player numbers on Saturday compared to a week earlier, a gain of around 150 players, according to Dan Stewart, who runs PokerScout. 
 
 In interviews, several professionals said they may transfer to live games—even though that is likely to bring in less income, in part because the players can't play as many games at one time. Some also said they are considering moving abroad. "Online I can play 500 tournaments a week," Mr. Wein said. "In a casino it might be three to five." Mr. Wein was among the players this weekend who said they'll consider moving abroad so they can continue playing. 
 
 For Mr. Albertson, the crackdown is likely to bring a new career path—and schedule. "I was joking with my girlfriend, 'I guess now I have to learn how to socialize with people on Sundays,'" he said. 
 
 Corrections & Amplifications 
 
 The U.S. Justice Department said it was blocking players in the U.S. from accessing Full Tilt Poker, along with other online poker sites. A previous version didn't specify that the shutdown applied to the U.S. only. 
 
 Write to Alexandra Berzon at alexandra.berzon@wsj.com
– Papa needs a new pair of … cows? Zynga yesterday filed the first salvo of paperwork necessary to obtain an online gambling license in Nevada, the Wall Street Journal reports. But don't expect to be betting on Farmville (or more likely titles like Zynga Poker) anytime soon. The document filed yesterday was a request for the state to decide if Zynga is even potentially suitable for a license, and that decision alone is expected to take 12 to 18 months. It's unclear how long after that final approval would come. The move comes amidst a rapidly changing legal landscape around online gambling. Nevada became the first state to legalize online poker earlier this year. Though it has handed out a few licenses already, none of the companies' online poker games is up and running yet. And when they are, they'll be limited to state residents. But that could soon change: Harry Reid and Jon Kyl are working on a bill that would legalize online poker nationwide and even create an Office of Online Poker Oversight, the Journal reported yesterday. However, the bill would simultaneously ban most other forms of online gambling.