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Paul Tagliabue On Gambling In Sport

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On a June morning in 1991, the most powerful men in American sports gathered to petition a Senate subcommittee to stop the spread of something they saw as a growing evil.

“We do not want our games to be used as bait to sell gambling,” NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said. “We have to make it clear to the athletes, the fans and the public, gambling is not a part of sport, period.”

Tagliabue’s argument helped push the passage the following year of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which confined legal sports betting to Nevada and three other states. More than 20 years later, America’s widespread legal ban on sports gambling is under siege like never before.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, whose predecessor David Stern sat alongside

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