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On May fourteenth, two thoy and eighteen, the United States Supreme Court overturned
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PASPA, a law that prohibited sports gambling across the nation, in a six
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to three decision based on the Tenth Amendment, officially making the decision to legalize
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sports gambling up to the States and opened the country up to massive growth in
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the industry. Today, we dive into the history of sports gambling in this
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major monumental decision today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History.
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I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive into sports history every
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day. Now. Gambling goes as far back as to when games and sports
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began, but in America, the first form of game gambling was actually the
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lottery, which helped the original colonies fund the American Revolutionary War through taxes on
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the lottery, and this slowly started other games and sports to be involved in
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gambling as well. As horse racing became more popular, with the very first
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racetrack in North America being built in Long Island, New York in sixteen sixty
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five, and people began gambling at roadhouses in taverns with card games and rudimentary
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slot machines. But the problem was more and more there was fraud going on
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with these lotteries and gambling institutions, and so the government stepped in saying if
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you offered gambling services, including lotteries and horse racing, it had to be
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without fraud and you could be brought up in charges if you were found to
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be defrauding the general public. And nothing brought this to light more than when
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the nineteen nineteen Icago Black Sox scandals happened, when eight members of the heavily
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favored Chicago White Sox were accues of intentionally throwing the World Series versus the Cincinnati
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Reds, and these eight players were banned for life from Major League Baseball,
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a stance that helped lead the way for other professional sports to take a hard
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fast rule against gambling in sports. Even though only five of the eight players
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were brought up on charges of fraud and all charges were eventually dropped, the
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players still remained banned from baseball forever. Now. Due to this, gambling
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was hit or miss across the country where it was legal and what actually was
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legal, and anti gambling laws continued to go across the country, limiting sports
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gambling, especially due to the fraud that could come, but other gambling as
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well was being sawt as immoral and laws were getting passed from various states.
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But in the nineteen thirties, in the Great Depression, Nevada was struggling economically,
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and so they decided to legalize gambling, becoming one of the first states
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to do so and help boost their economy, and in nineteen forty nine,
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to increase tourism to the state, they actually legalized sports betting, becoming the
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first state to do so and helped lead a boom to their economy, especially
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in Las Vegas. But in nineteen fifty one, the federal government instituted eight
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tax on all sports betting of ten percent, which made sports betting a losing
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proposition for most institutions and limited the amount of people that actually were able to
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do legalize sports gambling, and it led it more to underground bookies. But
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in nineteen fifty four, Congress reduced the tax to two percent, which gave
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Nevada in Las Vegas a chance to prosper and sports gambling grew and grew,
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But in the nineteen sixties the US government instituted a few more laws to help
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prohibit gambling across the nation and limit fraud that had been going on, as
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there had been multiple scandals, including the NHL in nineteen forty eight having Billy
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Taylor and Don Gallagher be banned for life for fixing games, and in nineteen
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fifty one, the City College of New York, who had just won the
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national championship in basketball, had been point shaving in their games and in a
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scandal that included multiple teams and changed the perspective on gambling in sports. In
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nineteen sixty one, the US government passed the Federal Wire Act, which prohibited
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wager transfers over interstate lines and foreign commerce, so you could not make wagers
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over the phone as many in other states besides Nevada would call to Nevada to
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try to place a bet, and if you were caught doing this you could
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have a fine of up to ten thousand dollars or two years in prison.
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They also passed a few more laws, including the Travel Act, which prohibit
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vivid the use of mail and other goods for unlawful activities, and then the
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Interstate Transportation of Paraphernalia Act, which included physical tools and materials associated with gambling,
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and in nineteen sixty four, they passed the Sports Bribery Act, which
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made it illegal to pay players in sports to point, shave, or throw
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games. Despite these acts, illegal gambling didn't stop in the nineteen seventies and
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eighties, and the US Justice Department actually decided to deep prioritize the enforcement of
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anti gambling laws as it was so widespread. They did not have the budget
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to keep up with the amount of illegal gambling going on across the country.
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But in nineteen seventy six, New Jersey made a huge decision to allow casinos
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in gambling in their state, becoming the second state to do so, with
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a major focus on Atlantic City, who was trying to be the Las Vegas
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of the Despite all these new laws, sports gambling continued to have its scandals.
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There's point shavings at Boston College in nineteen seventy eight and seventy nine,
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and Pete Rose famously was banned from baseball for betting on MLB games that he
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managed. So in nineteen ninety two, Congress came down hard on sports gambling
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and passed the PASPA known as the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which
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banned states or government entities from legalizing sports wagering, and it said that it
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was unlawful for governments to sponsor, operate, advertise, promote, license any
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sports wagering and including a person as well. This included lottery, sweepstakes,
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and betting on all sporting events, but it did grandfather in locations that had
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already had this, so Nevada and Las Vegas became more of a monopoly for
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sports gambling than anything else and helped boost their economy. But other states did
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have forms of sports wagering on their books, including Delaware, organ Montana,
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and New Jersey, and they were allowed to keep the form of sports wagering
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that they had. Then in two thousand and six, the Internet was starting
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to become a big boom and sports betting on the Internet became a major issue
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in the target to help regulate, and a law as the Unlawful Internet Gambling
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Enforcement Act came down to include that you could not gamble on sports over the
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Internet, but this again didn't stop therefore being issued when in two thousand and
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seven it was found out that Tim Donahey, a longtime NBA referee, had
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been part of a mob connected scheme to bet on games where he officiated and
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possibly changed the outcome of the games. In two thousand and nine, many
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states started to try to overturn the PASPA law, filing multiple lawsuits, with
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none really making its way to the Supreme Court until twenty sixteen, when New
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Jersey governor filed another petition for a rite of habeas corpus which it would be
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reviewed by the Supreme Court, despite the Solicitor General trying to get the case
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thrown out, and the Supreme Court agreed to hear the arguments and in December
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deep they heard oral arguments based around the fact that it was violating the tenth
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Amendment, which is an amendment that says the federal government only has the power
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to delegate in the Constitution and if it's not listed, then it belongs to
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the states or the people. And after hearing the arguments, the Supreme Court
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overturned PASWA and it opened the floodgates for states to start to include gambling,
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and this included online gambling which was now going to become a major factor,
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which included online sports gambling sites such as DraftKings and FanDuel. Now ever,
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since this overruling, there have been over two hundred billion dollars bet on sports
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and at the time of this recording, all but eleven dates have passed laws
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to legalize sports gambling in some sort of way in their state, with states
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such as California and Texas and Georgia all actively trying to pass laws to legalize
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it in their states as well. Since the law has been overturned, sports
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books have made over seventeen billion dollars in the industry, but at the same
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time, states and local government have made over three billion dollars and federal government
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has made over five hundred million dollars, which has helped increase budgets for all
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levels of government, which in some ways can be a very good thing.
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Whether you agree or disagree with sports gambling, I think what's important to realize
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is that it's good that we have the decision now in most places to decide
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if we want to gamble or not. Ultimately, whether you agree with sports
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gambling or not, it is great that we had the decision to choose if
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we want to gamble or not. And with that decision, the challenges of
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fighting against fraud we'll always be there as money can make us do crazy things,
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but it gives us the opportunity to make our own path. It can
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make games more enjoyable, It can make us a little money. It can
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lose a lot of money as well as generally people lose more money than they
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make. But as those commercials always say, bet responsibly, meaning don't bet
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too much. It's just a game. Enjoy betting for entertainment. Don't bet
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the house or the farm because it's just not worth it. But I'm willing
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to bet that you love today's episode and you're loving Daily Sports History. So
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if you do, please leave us a review or rating wherever you're listening,
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and if you take a screenshot and email it to us at Daily Sportshistory at
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gmail dot com, we will send you something special as a surprise. And
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come back tomorrow for more Daily Sports History.