Place Your Bets

Sports gambling is an illegal multi-hundred-billion-dollar industry in the United States today. Due to the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), 46 states are denied the opportunity to offer state-sponsored sports gambling (Delaware, Montana, Nevada, and Oregon are exempt). The problem with this law is that sports gambling is still occurring over the internet and through bookies. The government's attempt to control the choices of the American people isn't stopping them from gambling on sports, rather it is pushing them to underground channels where regulation has no foothold. The American government is failing to take advantage of tax revenue that can be used to monitor the sports gambling world along with the sports themselves. This issue of control has had its place in American history and the government finds itself on the wrong side of it once again. This thesis explores the misconceptions in the government's perceived idea of "control" and proposes that PASPA be repealed because of the enormous tax revenue opportunity eliminated by outlawing sports gambling.