Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992

Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992

Long title	An Act to prohibit sports gambling under State law, and for other purposes.
Acronyms (colloquial)	PASPA
Nicknames	Bradley Act
Enacted by	the 102nd United States Congress
Effective	October 28, 1992
Citations
Public law	102-559
Statutes at Large	106 Stat. 4227
Codification
Titles amended	28 U.S.C.: Judiciary and Judicial Procedure
U.S.C. sections created	28 U.S.C. ch. 178 § 3701 et seq.
Legislative history
Introduced in the Senate as S. 474 by Dennis DeConcini (D–AZ) on February 22, 1991 Committee consideration by Senate Judiciary, House Judiciary Passed the Senate on June 2, 1992 (88–5 Roll call vote 111, via Senate.gov) Passed the House on October 6, 1992 (agreed voice vote) with amendment Senate agreed to House amendment on October 7, 1992 (agreed voice vote) Signed into law by President George H. W. Bush on October 28, 1992
United States Supreme Court cases
Struck down by U.S. Supreme Court in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association on May 14, 2018

The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 102–559), also known as PASPA or the Bradley Act, was a law, judicially-overturned in 2018, that was meant to define the legal status of sports betting throughout the United States. This act effectively outlawed sports betting nationwide, excluding a few states.

The sports lotteries conducted in Oregon, Delaware, and Montana were exempt, as well as the licensed sports pools in Nevada.^[1] In addition, Congress provided a one-year window of opportunity from the effective date of PASPA (January 1, 1993) for states which operated licensed casino gaming for the previous ten-year period to pass laws permitting sports wagering. The latter exception was clearly crafted with New Jersey in mind. However, New Jersey failed to take advantage of this opportunity. Excluded from the reach of PASPA were jai alai, as well as parimutuel horse and dog racing.

In a May 2018 decision in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that PASPA conflicts with the Tenth Amendment.

In less than six years since the repeal of PASPA (as of January 2024^[update]), regulated sportsbooks had taken in over $300 billion from sports betting while paying local and state governments over $2 billion.^[2]