The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992, known as PASPA, regulated the U.S. sports wagering market until 2018 when Supreme Court ruled that the PASPA conflicted with the Tenth Amendment and revoked the legislation. Now, five years later, American Gaming Association (AGA) has researched the sports betting sentiment of the American people and the impact of the 2018 measure to find out that 85 percent of Americans support the Supreme Court’s decision to repeal PASPA.

This number is 22 percent above 63 percent of American proponents five years ago. AGA also found that 77 percent of adults in the States support the legalization of sports wagering in their home state regardless of the current sports betting legal status in their state of residence.

Legalized Betting Increased:

According to the research, almost the same percentage of land-based and online bettors – 78 and 77, respectively – use regulated sportsbooks which is almost double the level seen in 2019. The legal market is growing, with customers reported to be increasingly using legal bookies and refraining from offshore operators. This trend is widely promoted by gaming regulatory bodies such as the Nevada Gaming Control Board which recently joined six other state regulators to urge federal authorities to protect legal gambling operations.

Although these data show that Americans are widely aware of the importance of legal sports wagering brought across the country by the Supreme Court’s decision in 2018, the AGA survey found that people are not very well educated to make a distinction between legal and illegal sportsbooks. It showed that 29 percent of adults in the U.S. are not sure of the legal status of sports betting operators in their states, but this percentage being 45 percent lower than in 2018 shows a significant improvement in this regard.

However, consumer education is reportedly still needed as 70 percent of consumers who placed their bets with illegal operators believed that they were referring to legal sports betting operators or claimed similar practices following the misrepresentations of illegal online operators.

$220 Billion Handle:

Since May 2018 and the repeal of PASPA, the total legal sports wagering handle in the U.S. has amounted to $ 220 billion, according to AGA. Americans have followed the legislation to wager and generate $3 billion in tax revenues to date.

AGA President and CEO Bill Miller, commented: “Five years post-PASPA, the AGA and our members continue to support responsibly expanding the legal market while cracking down on predatory illegal operators. The regulated industry and our partners across the entire ecosystem—policymakers, law enforcement, regulators, leagues, media, technology providers, and more—have made significant strides in our collaborative consumer education efforts since 2018, and we will continue to find new ways to enhance consumer protections as the market matures.” 

Increased Awareness and Benefits:

Sports wagering in the U.S. has come a long way over the last five years. Its legalization was a subject of fierce debates among the legislators sometimes leading to gaming bill proposals having repeatedly been sent to the floor and resumed, as was the case in the Kentucky House earlier this year, for example. But the rising number of legalized sports wagering proponents shows that the American people are increasingly aware of the community benefits resulting from the growth of the sports betting industry.