Bill Bradley did not like sports betting. The former New York Knicks star forward felt it sent the wrong message to young athletes and undermined the integrity of the game. So when Bradley transitioned from the basketball court to the U.S. Senate, he championed a nationwide ban on sports betting.
It was not, perhaps, the most likely of causes for a Senator from New Jersey, home of Atlantic City, and then-Rep. Bob Torricelli was chagrined. To Sen. Bradley’s dismay, Torricelli engineered a carveout for New Jersey, with a grandfather clause that allowed continuing sports book operations in a handful of states that already allowed them, including Nevada.
However, a stalemate in the state legislature prevented New Jersey from legalizing sports betting in the narrow window granted them by the new federal law, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PAPSA) of 1992. And so it came to pass that, two and a half decades later, a new generation of New Jersey politicians would unmake Bradley’s legacy, winning a victory in the Supreme Court to strike down PAPSA and open the door to state legalization—and of course taxation—of sports betting.
The Tax Foundation
by Jared Walczak
January 25, 2019