TRENTON — The U.S. Supreme Court today spurned New Jersey's long effort to legalize sports betting, handing another defeat to Gov. Chris Christie and lawmakers who view it as a way to revive Atlantic City and the state's ailing racetracks.


After being rejected twice in federal court, the state appealed to the nation's highest court in February in a last-ditch effort to overturn a 22-year-old federal law preventing New Jersey from permitting state-sanctioned sports betting at casinos and horse-racing tracks.


But the justices today declined to hear the case, allowing the lower court rulings to stand.


Christie said he was disappointed but suggested the state will now give up its two-year battle.


"It's always a long shot to get certiorati from the United State Supreme Court," the Republican governor said before playing in a charity softball game at Yankee Stadium this morning. "That's the way it goes. They said no, so we have to move on."


But two leading Democratic lawmakers said they'll continue to fight. State Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union), who has led the legalization effort, introduced a bill today to sidestep the issue by repealing old state laws prohibiting sports betting at casinos and horse tracks and allowing private companies to have sports betting operations without state regulation.


Lesniak said he hopes to pass the bill soon so Monmouth Park in Oceanport can begin accepting bets by September, in time for the start of the NFL season.


"I expect that the U.S. Justice Department will refrain from intervening, as they have with Colorado and Washington when those states legalized marijuana," he said. "I plan on placing my first bet at Monmouth Racetrack on Sept. 8 for the Giants to beat the spread against the Lions on 'Monday Night Football.'"


The Justice Department did not return a message seeking comment.


State Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) also vowed to keep fighting, saying the "economic impact that sports wagering can have on New Jersey is far too important to simply shrug our shoulders and move on."


"New Jersey has been held hostage by this unfair law and the national sports associations long enough," Sweeney said.


Two of New Jersey's congressmen — U.S. Reps. Frank LoBiondo (R-2nd Dist.) and Frank Pallone (D-6th Dist.) — issued a joint statement calling on Congress to support federal legislation to legalize sports wagering in New Jersey.


The current fight began in 2011, when New Jersey voters overwhelmingly approved amending the state constitution to allow sports betting. Lawmakers passed a law allowing sports betting and Christie signed it. Under the law, people would not have been allowed to wage bets on games involving New Jersey colleges or college games played in the state.


State officials said they were trying not only to curb illegal sports betting and bring the state millions of dollars in tax revenue, but also help revive Atlantic City's 11 casinos and the state's horse tracks.


But in 2012, a group of sports organizations — the National Collegiate Athletic Association, Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the National Football League, and the National Hockey League — sued to block the law from taking effect, saying it would harm the integrity of their sports. The U.S. Justice Department also joined the case.


They argued that New Jersey's law violated the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which Congress passed, that bars states from licensing or regulating sports betting — except for Nevada, Delaware, Montana, and Oregon, which were grandfathered under the act.


The law — sponsored by one of New Jersey's U.S. Senators at the time, former professional basketball star Bill Bradley — gave the Garden State one year to decide whether sports betting in Atlantic City would be grandfathered in, as well. But lawmakers decided against it.


Twenty-two years later, New Jersey officials have argued the federal law is unfair and unconstitutional because it violates states' rights.


But a U.S. District Court ruled against the state last February. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia upheld that ruling in September.


The state has spent millions in taxpayer money fighting the case, including $3.1 million to outside law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher — the same firm Christie hired to conduct his office's internal investigation into the George Washington Bridge scandal.


Lesniak said one reason to keep fighting is because Atlantic City's future depends on sports wagering.


"This is, quite frankly, their only hope," Lesniak said. "They're going to continue to decline. We will continue to lose jobs."


He added that he was disappointed the Supreme Court "would allow Las Vegas to be jam-packed (with bets) during the Super Bowl and Final Four weekend, while Atlantic City is a ghost town."


But Lesniak said the U.S. Justice Department left the door open for New Jersey to offer sports betting via a private operation — and not licensed by the state.


In legal briefs, the department said federal law "does not even obligate New Jersey to leave in place the state-law prohibitions against sports gambling that it had chosen to adopt prior to PASPA's enactment. To the contrary, New Jersey is free to repeal those prohibitions in whole or in part."


Thus, Lesniak said his new bill would repeal state laws prohibiting sports betting that went into effect before the federal law did.


"They invited us to do this," Lesniak said. "They said, 'We're not interfering with state's rights. Go right ahead.' It's a bizarre argument."