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Abstract

NCAA v. Christie, a recent landmark sports-betting case, is making its way through the federal courts and reigniting the fight for sportsbetting opportunities in the United States. The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) is at the center of the dispute in that case. PASPA currently allows only four U.S. states to conduct sports-betting schemes in their casinos. Even if PASPA is held to be constitutional after NCAA v. Christie plays out in the courts, Congress should modify PASPA to allow states to regulate their own sports-betting enterprises. Without modification, billions of dollars in tax revenues and income from legitimate sports-betting industries that could go to the United States instead will continue to go to offshore Internet operations, backroom book makers, and organized crime. Sports bettors in the United States who do not live in or frequent one of the four states that sanction sports betting instead turn to offshore and illegal outfits to place their bets. Courts have struggled to develop an effective solution of obtaining jurisdiction over foreign entities that license gambling websites. However, with minimal enforcement power to regulate foreign and illegal betting outfits, it is time now to modify PASPA to grant every U.S. state an opportunity to use revenue-generating sports betting to relieve debt from their current fiscal budgets. Instead of outlawing 46 states from conducting their own sports-betting schemes, Congress should modify PASPA to allow each state to decide for itself whether it wants to sanction a sports-betting scheme within its jurisdiction. By allowing each state to experiment as a laboratory with a sports-betting scheme-tailored to each state's specific needs-a national solution will emerge, which in time can be implemented into more appropriate and effective federal regulation.

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