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Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy

Keywords

Murphy v. NCAA, PASPA, Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, Sports Gambling

Abstract

Just as sports gambling promotes viewership, attracts commercial interests, and encourages fan interaction, it forces sports leagues to redefine their core values to maintain the "integrity of the game" and protect athletes. It challenges sports leagues to reconcile their promotion of honest and fair competition with the near-nationwide normalization of an activity replete with under-the-table dealing, corruption, and scandal. Common sense dictates that gamblers prefer safe bets, yet gambling is necessarily a calculated risk-taking in an uncertain outcome. The history of sports gambling has shown that uncertainty can be combatted by incentivizing players and teams to dictate the outcome of the wager. 3 0 6 This is the challenge faced by the NCAA, which must determine how to steer financially-destitute athletes away from the temptation to score a quick profit while battling poor public relations and challenges to its amateurism model and student-athlete ideal. One thing is certain, however: the NCAA is both the cause and cure of many its problems.

The Supreme Court's decision in Murphy opened the door to the nationwide legalization of sports gambling. States, private entities, and individual actors are scrambling to participate in the sports gambling gold rush. The NCAA should view this scramble as an opportunity to improve its public relations, protect its student-athletes, and maintain its amateurism model. Instead of joining the scramble, the NCAA should leverage its ability to determine the location of highly profitable NCAA events to effect positive change.

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