US sports betting fans got an early Christmas present on Friday as the Supreme Court set a December date for New Jersey’s appeal of the nation’s federal betting ban.

On Friday, Washington Post reporter Robert Parnes announced that the Court had updated its calendar to include a December 4 date for oral arguments in New Jersey’s appeal of lower court rulings blocking its plans to allow legal sports betting at Atlantic City casinos and state racetracks.

The Court announced in June that it would consider New Jersey’s latest bid to overturn the federal PASPA sports betting ban, it what had seemed until that moment to be a Quixotic multi-year quest that produced no tangible benefit to anyone except the lawyers representing the state and its opponents, North America’s four major pro sports leagues, the NCAA and the US Department of Justice.

New Jersey began its quest for legal betting a decade ago, and the ensuing years have witnessed a marked shift in attitudes towards legal sports betting, both from the general public – a majority of whom now hold a favorable view of the activity – and from some of the more progressive league owners, who sense economic opportunity in them thar sportsbooks.