Brad Humphreys
On May 14, 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act was unconstitutional. PASPA regulated betting on professional and amateur sports since 1992, and effectively outlawed betting on sports everywhere in the United States except in the State of Nevada.
Brad Humphreys, professor of economics at West Virginia University, has studied this issue extensively and says it means that states can now choose to legalize sports betting if they want to, or maintain the status quo of no legal sports betting.
“The primary reason some states will want to legalize sports betting is the new source of tax revenue. Most state plans include a tax on either total bookmaker handle (the dollar value of bets placed) or bookmaker profits. The size of these revenues is difficult to estimate without concrete information on how much will be bet in a state. In addition, sports leagues have already begun pushing for a share of any sports betting revenues. Several leagues lobbied state legislatures for a 1% “integrity fee” to help offset any external costs to leagues, in terms of monitoring games for fixing and educating players about the dangers of gambling. Clearly, this decision will alter the sports betting landscape in many ways.”
Brad Humphreys audio file (1:29)
Brad Humphreys
Professor of Economics
College of Business and Economics
304.293.7871
Read about his research “An Overview of Sports Betting Regulation in the United States.”
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ak/05/14/2018
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