Orrin Hatch, a longtime U.S. senator from Utah and at various times both an opponent of legal sports betting and a proponent of federal standards on the activity, died on April 23 in Salt Lake City at age 88.

Hatch was one of the four original authors of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), a 1992 federal law that prohibited sports betting for 26 years. After PASPA was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in May 2018, Hatch, a seven-term Republican senator, co-sponsored a proposed federal framework on sports betting in December 2018, shortly before his retirement.

“Senator Orrin G. Hatch personified the American Dream,” said Matt Sandgren, executive director of the Hatch Foundation, in a statement.