Passing the Ball: The United States Supreme Court Strikes Down PASPA and Throws Sports Gambling Back to State Legislatures

Hunter M. Haines

Though largely banned throughout the early 1900s, gambling experienced a rebirth in the second half of the twentieth century. Shortly after the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, however, federal legislators were worried that gambling would extend beyond traditional casino gambling and into the realm of sports, a possibility legislators unanimously opposed. Sports gambling had long been opposed by many legislators fearing it would corrupt amateur and professional sports organizations. Validating legislators’ opposition and fear, several sports gambling scandals in the 1900s utilized bribery and extortion to compromise athletes. For example, in 1919, eight Chicago White Sox players arranged with the nation’s leading gamblers to manipulate the outcome of the World Series of Major League Baseball (“MLB”) to guarantee and collect a lucrative payout— infamously becoming known as “The Black Sox.” Thus, in 1992, with the support of those opposing sports gambling, Congress passed the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (“PASPA”), a statute that prohibited wagering on amateur and professional sports.