American Gaming Association Lobbying Rigorously For Paspa Repeal

Governor Chris Christie

Even as the Supreme Court of United States continues mulling over the ruling in the highly publicized Christie vs NCAA federal case, the apex regulatory body in the country, the American Gaming Association has come up with a novel strategy of campaigning for a repeal of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act or the PASPA. The regulatory body has decided to prove its point in the favor of eliminating PASPA by illustrating a game of college-level basketball.

Enforced back in 1992, the PASPA had introduced a country wide ban on the different forms of sportsbetting across the United States with the exception of the four states of Delaware, Montana, Nevada and Oregon. While the state of New Jersey was offered the opportunity to pass a legislation for legalizing sports-betting within its borders, Governor Chris Christie decided to move to the court to initiate an action with regard to the same.

With iconic participating members with the likes of the Caesars Entertainment Corporation, Scientific Games Corporation and Paddy Power Betfair, the American Gaming Association has always been pretty active in lobbying for the growth and development of the gaming industry in the United States. As such, the regulatory body has also come out in strong support of the abrogation of the PASPA. In a bid to further its efforts of getting the PASPA revoked by the Supreme Court, the American Gaming Association recently showcased a legal analytical report of the betting statistics for the upcoming NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Division I that revealed a staggering 97% of the wagering as illegal.

According to the report, there will illegal bets on the lines of $10 million that will be placed on the 2018 annual basketball tournament, with a mere $300 million that will be wagered in Nevada sportsbooks. The President and Chief Executive Officer for the American Gaming Association, Geoff Freeman remarked that although the sports-betting market in the United States is worth more than $150 billion a year, it is the existence of PASPA that is essentially creating criminals out of regular players who now prefer to place their bets on offshore platforms.

In his statement to the press, Freeman further added that the very meaningless and impractical PASPA is essentially turning criminals out of millions of regular American citizens just because they enjoy the recreation of college-level basketball!