This chapter examines the growing and transformative body of law governing sports betting, with a special emphasis on the Interstate Wire Act of 1961 and the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992, the two principal federal laws addressing sports betting. The provisions of PASPA, in particular, will serve as a launch point to a discussion of the true driver behind current efforts to legalize sports betting in the United States: the recent litigation pitting the State of New Jersey against the four major U.S. professional sports leagues and the National Collegiate Athletic Association. This chapter features an in-depth examination of the New Jersey case and explains how court rulings have opened a variety of pathways for states to legalize sports betting and, at a minimum, have compressed the time frame for federal action to repeal or amend PASPA.
