Oregon Says It Won't Need New Sports Betting Laws

If the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA, 1992) is deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court (which most industry insiders expect to happen any day now), a number of states have already set legislation in place – or at least introduced such – that would establish their own sports betting regulatory authority. However, Oregon says it won’t need new sports betting laws if PASPA falls, as its state lottery agency was partially exempt from PASPA to begin with.

Before PASPA passed in 1992, Oregon offered a lottery game called Sports Action, which was grandfathered in by PASPA. However, this was the only kind of sports betting that Oregon would ever be able to offer its residents per federal law, so OR options were limited to this dinky parlay convenience store amusement. And even though Sports Action has been idle for the last 10 years or so, it was never actually outlawed. Thus, Sports Action could be brought back at any time, even if PASPA remains the law of the land.

However, Oregon insists that the regulatory frameworks in place that once actively governed Sports Action in the state (and still passively do so), would be sufficient for managing any other sports betting venture once PASPA is overturned or repealed by future legislation.

Farshad Allahdadi, COO of the Oregon Lottery, says the following: “The Oregon State Lottery and its board has broad authority to introduce and remove games as it sees fit. Sports betting on a local level – if it is authorized federally – does not need any additional state legislative action.” As such, it seems that the second PASPA is done away with, Oregon will be one of the first states to offer some sort of public sports betting product to its residents.

There is another interesting aspect to this small revelation worth considering, however. You see, a number of US states have no state-level restrictions on sports betting at all – they have merely been content to let federal law preempt whatever legislation they could have put forward at any given time over the years. Technically speaking, any state that fits this mold would not be encumbered by the absolute need to pass legislation to legalize something that is already legal.

Legality, of course, is based on what is explicitly outlawed via written, passed law. If there is no law concerning a certain act or industry, that act or industry is inherently already legal. What Oregon is implying here – and what all states certainly seem to agree with – is that legislation and regulation as a matter of course preempt the individual’s freedom to do as he or she pleases with his or her own money despite there being no law against it. In other words, once PASPA is struck down, you should expect most states’ approaches to be to make sports betting temporarily illegal while they work out a regulatory agency and rubric to govern it.

In the meantime, the moment PASPA is overturned, expect many so-called “gray market” sports betting kiosks to crop up in areas that have no state-level statutes banning the practice. After all, a motivated, profit-minded individual tends to move quite a lot faster than a herd of politicians dozing off in a glorified drum circle. But also be wary of such bookmakers, as there will be little chance to claim your funds after the inevitable crackdown on sportsbetting in Oregon.

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