DraftKings, has been hiring staff for a new office it opened in Hoboken in February. Chief Executive Jason Robins said the company has also held discussions with officials at the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, which would need to approve the company’s license and gambling software.

New Jersey has been trying to legalize sports betting at racetracks and casinos since 2011, when 63% of the state’s voters approved a ballot referendum that allowed the state constitution to be changed to permit sports betting.

Major professional and college sports leagues have sued to block the state from allowing sports betting, and the ensuing legal battles have cost New Jersey taxpayers more than $8.5 million since 2012, according to state records.

Supreme Court justices heard oral arguments in the case in December and expressed skepticism over the federal law, called the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which prohibits states from sponsoring, operating, licensing or authorizing sports gambling.

Nevada, the only state to allow legal wagering on individual sports contests, and Oregon, Delaware and Montana, which offer more limited versions of sports betting, were grandfathered in. New Jersey has argued that the law violates states’ rights.

Daniel Wallach, a sports and gambling-industry attorney with the Florida-based law firm Becker & Poliakoff, predicts that the court will rule narrowly, issuing a decision that would allow New Jersey to decriminalize sports betting without striking down the federal law as unconstitutional.