to legalize sports gambling in recent years, and the obstacle to them all is a federal law known as paspa. >> paspa is the professional amateur sports protection act, turned into law end of '92, it was proposed by bill bradley who was then a senator from new jersey. >> reporter: and former nba great. >> former nba great. and the idea was he wanted to make sports gambling illegal from a federal perspective. >> reporter: and what was he trying to protect? what was the argument made? >> the argument was - the argument for anybody who's against sports betting is always protecting the integrity of the game. they don't want match fixing. they don't want game fixing to be a part of the conversation whether it's at the professional level or at the college level. >> reporter: game fixing is trying to change the outcome of a game through illegal means. someone who's got money riding on a certain outcome persuades a player or a referee, often by bribing them, to fix a game or shave off a few points. and it's not some phantom issue, it happens. it happens in college sports, it happens in professional