Sports betting might be broadly legalized within the US in approximately four years and one in all its highest profile proponents, the National Basketball Association, will continue to name for a regulatory framework for wagering, American Gaming Association president and CEO Geoff Freeman said Wednesday. Those calls, however, will likely continue to prevent wanting direct legislative lobbying.

NBA spokesman Michael Bass told Gambling Compliance that while his league maintained its position in favor of a law regulating sports betting, it was not likely to become more aggressive in directly advocating for any such law.

Freeman told those assembled that he met personally last month in Ny with NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who he known as a “partner” within the effort to determine a legal sports betting framework within the US. Bass characterized the meeting as “informational only.” His remarks followed Freeman’s, which came at a gaming event in Mississippi.

The comments indicate sports betting proponents might have to lean on someone instead of their most high-profile champion to spearhead the literal action of amending or repealing the pro and Amateur Sports Protection Act, the 1992 federal framework outlawing all types of sports betting in all but four states. In addition they create a mild distinction between the NBA speaking publicly concerning the need for updated federal legislation and never advocating for it with federal lawmakers.

It’s unclear exactly how the NBA would support whichever legislator, independent group or other actor that chose to soak up the sports betting mantle in Washington, D.C. In late 2015, Silver told FiveThirtyEight that legal sports betting made sense from a financial perspective.

“One of the explanations I’ve been pushing to legalize sports betting isn't because that I’m necessarily an advocate of sports betting, it’s because the entire research shows that it’s a multi-hundred-billion dollar business just within the U.s.a. right now,” Silver said.

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