Change is coming. That is the message in a great article over at ESPN yesterday on the efforts of Gov. Jack Markell to legalize sports betting in Delaware. The author convincingly argues that Markell’s inevitable victory in his home state will lead to a complete overturning of the 1992 Federal ban on sports betting in the United States.

The idea is that once sports betting is legal in Delaware, it will bring in out of state gamblers and drain profits away from casinos in nearby Atlantic City. The author does a great job of framing the ensuing showdown:

Gambling options on the Eastern seaboard and on the Internet have been eroding Atlantic City’s profits since Sinatra headlined the Sands. Now Delaware—a roll of the dice away from AC—may allow sports betting? When the boardwalk is empty on Super Bowl Sunday? That’s just too much.

For months Jersey’s state legislature has been leaning on its U.S. congressmen to challenge the ban. This past December, the state assembly passed a resolution making its opposition official.

New Jersey state Senator Raymond Lesniak isn’t waiting for Congress to come around on this issue however. He’s taking it straight to them:

Lesniak says he’s gonna kick the federal government in the shins, filing a lawsuit that claims the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act is discriminatory and unconstitutional. “When they banned sports betting we were living in a different world,” says Lesniak, who pays the bills as a lawyer. “Now it’s legal where there are other gambling options as well, it should be legal here.”

In a time of pervasive government budget crises and the growing tide of online sports betting availability, there could be a window of opportunity here for the states to rise up and demand that the unconstitutional sports betting ban of 1992 finally be lifted. The author of this article thinks that it’s only a matter of time, and I optimistically agree.

Read the full story at ESPN.com.