About two decades ago, in a fit of “think about the children-ism” pique, Congress began to legislate nearly everything you could imagine on the internet: From speech to taxation. Many of these laws died painful deaths in committee or at the hands of federal judges. But one that squeaked through, led by former NBA player and Senator Bill Bradley, was one grandfathered in before the thunderdome of the internet age: The Professional and Amateurism Protection Act of 1992. (PASPA or the Bradley Act.)
Bolstered by hearings and testimony of professional sports commissioners and the NCAA, Congress found that sports gambling was “a national problem.