Part one of a three-part series on college athletics and legalized sports gambling
Tom McMillen, a 6-foot-11 former Rhodes Scholar, NBA player and U.S. Congressman, saw this day coming. In 1992, the same year McMillen voted to pass the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), which effectively outlawed sports betting for most of the country, he also authored a book, titled “Out of Bounds,” and included in it a prescient prediction:
“I wonder how long the sports establishment resists the temptation of gambling revenues,” he wrote. “Within the next decade or two, when the sports juggernaut needs new revenues, the sports leagues may well switch sides, banding with the states to push for sports gambling.