The Supreme Court decision in early May that in effect legalized sports betting in the U.S. has had a wide range of impacts. It was already legal in Delaware, but only for the NFL and in a parlay situation. In New Jersey, Monmouth Park racetrack is ready to go but threats from state officials will keep it closed until a bill is approved. But Mississippi might be the dark horse, which opens the nation’s first sports books outside of Nevada. In alphabetical order, here’s the list of states that responded to the May 14 Supreme Court decision.
ALABAMA
A spokesman for Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said a constitutional amendment would be necessary to authorize sports betting. “It is our view that a constitutional amendment would be the only way to conclusively establish the legality of sports gambling. Monday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision is not about whether sports gambling should be legal, but whether states should have the right to decide that question for themselves. In Alabama, sports gambling is already against the law and the court ruling does not alter that fact.”
Other experts said sports betting would be easier to establish in Alabama because, unlike lotteries, it is not explicitly banned in the state constitution. Cumberland School of Law Professor and former Magistrate Judge John Carroll said, “Right now only Section 65 of the state constitution prevents lotteries or gift enterprises. I don’t think we need a constitutional amendment. It’s up to the legislature to how they want to proceed.”
He said sports betting only would have to be approved by the legislature, then voters would have to approve it in a referendum.
Former Alabama Solicitor General John Neiman agreed, citing a 1979 Alabama Supreme Court opinion that legalized dog racing in the state.
“The rationale the court gave is a lottery is a type of game in which chance predominates over skill but the court said betting on dogs requires an amount of skill,” he said.
Similarly, betting on sports like college football would be a game of skill, Neiman said. “That bet requires knowledge about how Nick Saban (University of Alabama head coach) is going to coach, how Gus Malzahn (Auburn head coach) is going to coach, how the players are going to perform, and the like,” he said.
The Poarch Band of Creek Indians operates three casinos in Atmore, Wetumpka and Montgomery. Those venues could start offering sports gambling if the tribe legalizes it. American Gaming Association Senior Director for Strategic Communications Will Green said, “The choice rests with the tribes.”
Green noted “It’s pretty obvious, especially in SEC country, that betting is going on at colleges. I think we’d all be naïve to think otherwise. Think how many students at Auburn are betting on their phone on a Caribbean website, and they don’t even know, a lot of times it’s illegal for that website to accept their bet.”
Green added, “Betting on convenient, shady websites is not legal, and it doesn’t seem like it’s a big deal, but it fuels the black market, and it fuels criminal enterprises, and it doesn’t protect consumers. College students are tempted with that choice every day. Think about not betting them on the illegal market. For the Iron Bowl next year, drive to Mississippi.”
State Rep. Joe Lovvorn said the sports betting ruling gives lawmakers much to consider.
“I would just know and hope that all my colleagues will get as educated as possible to start looking at the issues and that we don’t jump to any action that would, long-term affect Alabama in a negative way,” Lovvorn said.
CALIFORNIA
Indian gaming, which is an $8 billion business in the Golden State, operates off of the guarantee that Las Vegas-style gaming is their exclusive provenance, guaranteed by compacts and by the state constitution. Tribes claim that exclusivity guarantee extends to sports betting now that it is legal.
Rep. Adam Gray has introduced a bill that, if passed, would put an initiative on the November ballot that could amend the state constitution to allow sports betting. The deadline to make the ballot is late June.
The exact wording of that bill is likely to involve intense negotiating between all the players and lobbyists of the various interests, which, besides tribes, would include just about anyone who could offer sports betting, such as the state’s 90 cardrooms and its seven racetracks, but conceivably lottery vendors as well. Adding spice to this process is that any bill to amend the constitution must be approved by two-thirds of both houses. That implies that only a proposal where almost everybody is happy will make the cut.
Steve Stallings, chairman of CNIGA (California Nations Indian Gaming Association) sent a formal request last week that tribes have a place in any negotiations.
“California voters have, on numerous occasions, confirmed the exclusive right of California tribal governments to operate casino-style games,” he said. “Legalization of sports betting should not become a backdoor way to infringe upon exclusivity.”
The National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) issued a statement last week that echoes Stallings. It said, “As federal regulators, we have learned first-hand that there is tangible benefit to having tribes, as primary regulators, driving decisions as to how gaming will operate on their own lands. As federal and state governments consider how to address sports betting in light of yesterday’s decision, we anticipate that tribes will be given a seat at the table to voice their positions, bring their perspectives and collective expertise, and maintain regulatory and operational control over all the gaming that occurs on their lands.”
Tim Ritvo, chief operating officer of the group that owns Santa Anita Park, hopes racetracks will be included in sports betting, but he expects a fight from the tribes. He told the Los Angeles Times: “I thought the Indians would work together with the horse tracks and the brick-and-mortar card clubs to have brick-and-mortar betting operations,” he said.
Larry Flynt, owner of the Hustler and Lucky Lady card clubs, noted that such a fight would be tilted in the tribes’ favor.
“The Indians have a very powerful lobby,” he said. “Indians have a lot more money than the card clubs,” Flynt said. “It’s always a struggle on every issue because the Indians have a very powerful lobby.”
Because of all of the heavy lifting that would be needed, Gray concedes that the chance of making the November ballot with his proposed constitutional amendment is slim.
The fact that almost unanimous agreement is required to refer an amendment to the voters is similar to the long-simmering struggle to legalize online poker in California. Competing tribal interests have prevented such a deal from happening for ten years. They could prevent this deal too.
Jennifer Roberts, associate director of the International Center for Gaming Regulation at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas told the Los Angeles Times: “You can expect lots of money to be spent.”
In 2004 tribal interests spent $33 million to defeat an initiative that would have allowed the state’s card clubs and racetracks to have slot machines.
Stallings agrees. In an interview with the New York Times he said, “If you can’t solve internet poker, I don’t know how you solve something like sports betting.”
Doug Elmets, who is the public relations adviser to some of the largest gaming tribes in the state, thinks self-interest will fuel some sort of action. “As the fifth-largest economy in the world, California is not likely to sit by and watch potentially substantial amounts of revenue go to other states,” he told the New York Times.
COLORADO
Colorado Department of Revenue Executive Director Michael Hartman recently noted state law “specifically prohibits sports gambling. It makes sports gambling illegal. So the first thing that would need to take place is the legislature would have to change that prohibition. The second is constitutional related. So it’s possible we would also need a constitutional change, which would require a vote of the people.”
Hartman added, “Because Title 18 specifically outlaws sports betting at this point, today we can’t do anything and wouldn’t be able to participate regardless of what the recent Supreme Court ruling was. I think taking time to learn lessons from others is always a good thing.”
Colorado Gaming Association Executive Director Peggi O’Keefe said sports betting is at least 18-24 months off in Colorado. If the legislature allows it, sports wagering most likely will be offered at first in Black Hawk, Central City and Cripple Creek, where gambling infrastructure already is in place.
“We believe voters have spoken repeatedly that they like to keep gambling in those three mountain communities,” said O’Keefe. “Every time there’s been an attempt to allow gambling outside of the mountain communities it’s failed miserably—anywhere from 68 percent to 90 percent failure rate.”
O’Keefe added, “Folks like the idea of gambling limited up in the mountains, not in their backyard, not on the street corner, not adding transportation woes. Not adding concerns with what might be going on. They like it in the mountain towns, where it’s in a confined area.”
CONNECTICUT
Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy met with lawmakers to discuss what comes next now that the state has the option of legalizing sports betting. He hasn’t ruled out holding a special session to address it.
“There’s a general understanding that the world has changed in light of the court’s decision” and Connecticut must “do something” said the governor. The legislative session ended May 9 before a bill could be adopted.
Malloy said he wants to ensure that the state’s revenue sharing with its gaming tribes isn’t endangered by any legislation.
Connecticut’s two gaming tribes, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe and the Mohegans, operate Foxwoods and the Mohegan Sun respectively. Besides fighting off an attempt in the legislature to commercial gaming, the tribes are simultaneous claiming that if the state allows anyone but them to offer sports betting that will violate their compacts, resulting in the state losing the 25 percent of profits that they pay the state.
The compacts, signed in the 1990s, have resulted in billions of dollars in shared revenue to the state. Last year it was $270 million, although the amount has been steadily declining for several years.
Mohegan Attorney General Helga Woods fired a warning shot across the state’s bow recently warning that if a non-tribe was allowed to offer “video facsimile gaming” that would violate the exclusivity of the compacts. That apparently includes sports gaming.
Legislative leaders and state Attorney General George Jepsen differ with that interpretation. A bill in the legislature would allow the tribes, the Connecticut Lottery Corporation and Sportech, which operates OTB parlors, to offer sports betting.
Pequot Tribal Chairman Rodney Butler has offered to negotiate. “We have said, ‘We want to work with you,’” he told the New York Times. “Let’s work out an arrangement.”
Mohegan Chairman Kevin Brown appeared at least open to the idea of including the Connecticut Lottery Corporation and Sportech, which are mentioned in the proposed legislation, in negotiations.
“We don’t want to make it such a high hurdle,” said Brown, “that our exclusivity prevents us from being a first mover here.”
Gaming tribes all over the U.S. are maneuvering to get a slice of the sports betting pie, in some cases arguing that they should get all of it, depending on the state.
It could be a huge pie. In Great Britain, which has a sixth of the U.S.’s population, sports betting accounts for $20 billion. Illegal sports betting in the U.S. is estimated to be $150 billion annually.
Since the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 tribal gaming has expanded to become a huge $31 billion industry. But those games were always confined to slot machines and table games. Nevada was the only jurisdiction that offered Sportsbook and it has been profitable: $10.6 billion last year. Now that will change.
Tribes are cinching up their belts for a long-term fight as some of them argue that existing tribal state gaming compacts reserve the new form of gambling to them—although IGRA never mentioned it, and neither do any compacts.
DELAWARE
Most expect New Jersey to be the first state to be up and running with sports betting in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision, but many are saying the first state will be the First State, Delaware.
Delaware officials confirmed last week that the state’s casinos are free to open sports books immediately, under a state law passed in 2009. That law was challenge in a lawsuit from the sports leagues under PASPA, resulting in the courts restricting Delaware to three-game parlay bets on NFL games, the program that was in place prior to PASPA.
With PASPA no longer a valid law, the 2009 law is affirmed, according to a statement from the Delaware Department of Finance and state Attorney General Matt Venn.
“There are no legal obstacles to moving forward with full-scale sports betting in Delaware, including head-to-head-betting, which permits single-game wagering,” the statement said. “Under state law passed in 2009, Delaware may authorize betting on professional and collegiate sports, with the exception of games involving Delaware-based teams.”
According to a report from Delaware Online, the state could be ready to roll as early as the first week in June. That could give it first place in the race to implement new state-level sports betting.
Delaware is one of four states that had some form of PASPA exemption due to prior sports-betting programs developed by the state lottery. Nevada was the only grandfathered state with full-blown, single-game wagering.
Finance Secretary Rick Geisenberger’s statement said, “Following Monday’s ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court and consultation with the Delaware Attorney General’s Office, we are confident that Delaware has the legal and regulatory authority to authorize sports gaming in Delaware. The Delaware Lottery has had plans in place for months, and we will begin training lottery and casino staff early next week. We will continue to provide public updates as we prepare to launch full-scale sports gaming in Delaware next month.”
At least one casino is completely ready—after passage of the 2009 law, Dover Downs spent $1 million to build a state-of-the-art sports book. The lawsuit from the leagues forced the space into other purposes.
FLORIDA
Experts agree sports betting is unlikely to happen in Florida for quite a while. Two significant obstacles would have to be overcome for sports betting to take hold: the Seminole Tribe and Amendment 3. If it passes, the proposed constitutional amendment on the November ballot would give Florida voters future exclusive rights to make decisions about expanded gambling. Regarding the Seminoles, the tribe could see sports betting as expansion or competition.
Even if Amendment 3 fails, experts said it’s important to remember the legislature has not passed any comprehensive gambling measures for several years. But that could upset the parimutuel industry, which may see a sports book as a significant economic boost. However, its actual impact would depend on how the industry was regulated. For instance, if the state also approved mobile apps for betting, that might reduce the number of people who show up at casinos.
If Florida does approve sports betting, it could charge licensing fees to casinos and racetracks and take a share of the profits. Currently all of that money is handled illegally.
Under the Seminole compact, the tribe pays the state millions of dollars annually in exchange for exclusivity to offer blackjack and other banked card games, and more. If the state allows sports betting at racetracks or online, the tribe could be within its rights to stop the payments.
Attorney and author Darren Heitner said, “It’s all guesswork right now, but I imagine Florida will take a wait-and-see approach. It’s not a matter of two years, it’s probably more like five years away in Florida. I think they’ll look at other states and see if there is any increase in illegal activities because of gambling, and weigh that against the potential benefits and revenues.’’
ILLINOIS
Illinois state Rep. Napoleon Harris recently sponsored one of the measures that would set rules regarding sports betting taxation and regulation. “In my mind, there’s no question Illinois is going to approve a sports law allowing gambling on sporting events. It’s just a matter of when,” Harris said. The legislation would allow Illinois residents to bet on amateur, professional and college games at casinos and online.
Harris added he wants his colleagues to approve rules before neighboring states, including Wisconsin, Indiana and Iowa. “If they allow sports gambling in Indiana before they do Illinois, I can see a lot of Illinoisans just jumping the border, placing bets,” he said. He stated discussion over the legislation has speeded up since the Supreme Court’s decision.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel hasn’t announced a position but said if sports betting legislation passes, the city should get a share of any proceeds.
“First of all, you know that’s a question for Springfield, it’s not a question for Chicago. That said, if Springfield takes action, I want to make sure Chicago receives its resources back. But the first step has to be the action taken by Springfield,” he said.
State budget negotiators said they would not count on money from sports betting as they attempt to put together spending plan as the session heads to adjournment.
Representatives from casinos, horse racetracks, professional sports leagues and anti-gambling advocates gave testimony on sports betting in Illinois in April. Gambling supporters argued for low taxes and regulation to achieve a competitive market that would attract customers now betting illegally. Gambling opponents said sports betting, particularly online, could attract young people and lead them into addiction and debt.
An Eilers & Krejcik Gaming study indicated sports betting earnings could total around $680 million, with tens of millions going to the state in tax revenue.
KENTUCKY
Last September, Kentucky state Senator and former Governor Julian Carroll sponsored Senate Bill 22 in anticipation of the Supreme Court lifting the federal ban on sports betting. The bill went nowhere before the session ended. “It is very unfortunate that we did not pass Senate Bill 22 to put in place regulations necessary to collect new revenue from sports wagering in Kentucky once the ban was lifted. We could have been in front of this issue had we acted in the last session,” Carroll said.
State Rep. Steven Rudy said, “I guess anything’s possible in the future but it’s not really been on our radar. Who knows what the makeup of the legislature will be with at least 20 new members.” Rudy said he doesn’t see “any big groundswell” now but most likely the subject will be discussed between now and the 2019 session.
State Senator Danny Carroll commented, “I think people may be getting the impression sports betting would generate significant revenue. But I’m not getting the impression that would likely be the case at all, based on other states and the reading I’ve done. “There are a lot of different factors to understand how it would impact the state, and balancing that with having a basic opposition to expanding gaming. I’d also want to canvass my district and see what the people’s thinking about it is.”
Governor Matt Bevin noted, “Sports betting has happened since the dawn of time. We just came off celebrating a Derby weekend where it happened at a pretty prolific rate.” Although Bevin has strongly opposed expanded gambling in the past, he recently said it is “too soon to tell” what will happen in Kentucky regarding sports betting.
MARYLAND
State law in Maryland allows betting on horseraces at racetracks and limited off-track betting sites, and also allows slot machines and table games at its six casinos. However, sports betting would require a constitutional amendment approved by voters in a statewide referendum.
A bill calling for a voter referendum on the issue failed to pass in the state Senate after moving through the House of Delegates this year. Therefore, any new proposal probably would have to wait until next year, and then the earliest sports betting could be offered would be 2020.
Sports betting could provide an economic boost for horseracing, since the total money wagered at tracks nationwide has declined from $15.2 billion in 2003 to under $11 billion, according to Equibase. Industry experts believe adding sports wagering would not divert bets typically placed on races to action in more popular sports. “We don’t think it’s a negative thing at all,” said Tiffani Steer, vice president of communications and events for Stronach Group, owners of Pimlico and Laurel Park, among other racetracks. “I think that what it does is offer actually more for a customer. So if you want to come and wager on horseracing and wager on an NBA or an NFL game, you can do that, too. And vice versa: I think it potentially opens up horseracing to perhaps a whole set of customers who may not normally consider horseracing or come to a track because perhaps they’re more attracted to traditional sports betting.”
MASSACHUSETTS
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker told reporters that he expects the legislature to move quickly to regulate sports betting.
“It’s hard for me to see how we could ignore this and choose not to pursue it,” he said.
The Bay State is known for its enthusiastic sports fans. “We’ve got the Red Sox here, the Patriots, the Bruins, the Celtics,” said Senator Eric Lesser, who is expected to be one of the key players in crafting legislation because he is chairman of the Senate’s economic development committee. He told the Republican, “It’s a huge sports town and now we have a gaming law, and two brick-and-mortar casinos opening on top of that.”
However, Lesser said he hasn’t decided if he supports sports betting. “There’s a lot of elements that need to be unpacked and we’re at the beginning of that process,” he told reporters.
For the better part of a year the Massachusetts Gaming Commission has been discussing the pending Supreme Court ruling, and what it might mean for the state. Several months ago, the panel was handed a 29-page white paper on sports betting.
The paper said, “The introduction of a new aspect of the emerging gaming industry in Massachusetts presents an opportunity to bring a significant amount of gaming activity and revenues out of the shadows and into the legal market.”
It noted that mobile platforms may be the dominant method of placing bets. “While bettors in Nevada can still physically place a bet at a sports book much of the business has now turned to placing bets online or via smartphone applications, the first of which was approved in 2010” It added, “As of 2018, there are eight different sports betting apps available in Nevada.”
Baker told Bloomberg News that people will be able to bet on games while they are happening. “And the whole notion of what’s going to be possible under this is dramatically different than having sports books in Vegas, period. I mean, this is a much more significant expansion.”
To make way for sports betting, the legislature would need to decriminalize it, “such as when conducted with a state approved sports book operator,” said the paper. “Additionally, Massachusetts would need to determine if regulation of the industry would be addressed specifically via statute or regulation, as well as who should regulate the field.”
The governor said lawmakers plan to include major sports leagues, and DraftKings, which plans to offer sports betting, in the discussion. But the white paper posited a much wider field of interested participants. “Other, more exotic forms of betting include virtual sports, where the outcome of a computer-generated event (such as a virtual soccer game) is determined by an algorithm, as well as a form of ‘futures’ betting where election and entertainment (e.g. reality show) outcomes are the contest on which wagers are made,” the paper says.
The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, which has been stymied in its efforts to build a casino in Taunton, could be interested in jumping into internet sports betting.
The white paper emphasized the importance of maintaining the integrity of the games in order to protect consumers. “The organizations that offer the contests that are being bet on have a shared interest in ensuring the integrity of the games, as it goes to the core of why fans want to watch and bettors want to bet,” says the paper.
The first hint of game fixing could badly hurt the burgeoning industry, said the paper.
House Speaker Robert DeLeo, whose job it would be to shepherd any legislation, said he expected the issue of integrity to be brought up right at the beginning. He told reporters, “I know that this is going to be an issue that’s going to be raised and re-raised a number of times.”
The amount of taxation of sports betting will be a factor in determining its viability, said the paper. Especially since bookmakers traditionally operate on small margins. Higher tax rates could keep the industry in the shadows. “The active black-market operators pay no taxes and no regulatory costs. So they already enjoy an advantage over any legal operator that would only be compounded by a high tax rate on legal operators,” said the paper.
Although Bay State lawmakers aren’t known for moving with alacrity, but the fact that every other state is thinking about the same thing might prompt them to move faster than usual.
Lesser wants to move expeditiously but thoughtfully. He said it is possible to put a bill on Baker’s desk by July 31 when the legislative session ends. If they miss that, they won’t have another opportunity until next January.
The president of the Boston Red Sox, Sam Kennedy, last week said that government regulation of sports betting will be a “positive thing.”
In a TV interview with the New England Sports Network Kennedy said, “There’s estimates that there’s a hundred billion to four hundred billion dollars of illegal or illicit activity going on sports betting around the world.” He added, “And so it’s better to protect the integrity of the game, to have the government involved and to have regulation involved. We’ve seen that in other parts of the world with sports betting. So it’s something that baseball is working really hard to protect and to be a part of in a pro-active way.”
He said Major League Baseball and been working with other sports governing bodies to prepare for the eventually of the ban being lifted, “just to make sure that there are protections in place for the consumers, for the sport. It’s a very complex issue, but it seemed inevitable so baseball, to their credit, got out in front of it and they’ve been talking to the elected officials and we’ll see.”
The lobbying firm Smith Costello & Crawford is representing Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association to Massachusetts lawmakers as they consider sports betting legislation. Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP represents the PGA Tour.
MICHIGAN
Michigan state Reps. Brandt Iden and Bob Kosowski have sponsored four sports betting bills. Iden’s bill, HB 4926, would authorize and regulate sports betting at all currently licensed casinos—13 commercial and 23 tribal casinos–along with online and mobile sports wagering. “With the Supreme Court decision, we’ve got a lot of moving pieces. My first goal is to move my iGaming bill that includes sports betting out of the House first. That’s the one that we’ve made the most progress on,” Iden said.
He stressed he’d like to see his bill passed into law before the legislature takes its summer recess next month, but realistically he said he doesn’t expect sports betting to actually happen until 2020.
Kosowski said, “This is a huge win for Michigan. We’re finally allowed to do something that only a few states can do. Now it’s an even playing field and we’ll have a source of revenues to fix the roads and better the state’s schools.” Kosowski’s three bills would allow people to place sports bets in casinos or at state lottery terminals.
He said he believes sports betting could be offered “maybe at the start of football season. But we have to have a lot of work groups, meet with the casinos in Detroit and the tribes. We’ve got to get everybody’s intake and go from there.” He noted once the House establishes sports betting work groups, legislation could move quickly, perhaps within a month of the work groups being formed.
State Rep. Alan Morrison, who also introduced sports betting legislation, said, “July 1, 2019 would be about the soonest” sports betting could be up and running in the state. He said a study committee has been put together for this summer and legislation likely would be introduced in the next session. He said authorizing sports betting could ensure the integrity of sports with built-in monitoring and other protections.
Morrison added he understands some Michiganders will oppose sports wagering no matter what. “We have to do a good job of educating on how it would be a benefit for the state, that tax proceeds could be used to provide money for everything from roads to education. We wouldn’t be creating the industry of sports wagering. All we would be doing is allowing our gaming operations to offer what is already a legal activity.”
The Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Indians, owners of FireKeepers Casino Hotel in Battle Creek, also is keeping tabs on the Michigan legislature’s actions regarding sports betting. Vice President of Marketing Jim Wise said, “We will continue to participate in discussions with other stakeholders and will monitor any rulemaking or legislative proposals. We will continue our internal due diligence to determine if and how the tribe may add sports wagering to its mix of offerings to our patrons and guests. We expect there will be a lot of discussion about this topic in the coming weeks and months, but until there is something more to react to, it’s probably premature to speculate.”
Michigan’s tribal gambling compacts would have to be renegotiated if sports betting becomes legal in the state. Most of the tribes have lobbied against sports wagering in the past but attitudes seem to be shifting, observers said.
MISSISSIPPI
In 2017, the Mississippi legislature authorized sports betting as part of a bill legalizing and regulating fantasy sports. As a result, Mississippi was ready to become one of the first states to allow sports betting. And now the state Gaming Commission has proposed rules to govern sports books at Mississippi’s 28 licensed casinos. The commission is likely to vote on the proposed rules at its next schedule meeting on June 21—meaning casinos could begin to take bets in late July, well before the start of football season.
Under the new law, sports betting will be limited to Mississippi’s casinos, although the rules state bets could be made on mobile devices inside a casino. Casinos would pay state and local taxes of 12 percent of the wagers minus payouts. The new law does not include the integrity fee sought by major league sports.
Mississippi casinos will be allowed to take bets on any professional, college or Olympics sports, or any other proposition approved by regulators, except for political elections. The commission will be able to veto any wagers “contrary to the public policies of the state.”
Casinos will not be allowed to take wagers from coaches or participants. Also, casinos are required to report suspicious bets of more than $5,000, and they cannot offer special bets or special odds to a single patron. Sports books will be required to provide detailed information on individuals betting or winning more than $10,000, and they will be allowed to take bets placed on behalf of others.
Analysts said Mississippi’s casinos hope sports betting will give them a competitive edge over casinos in neighboring states. They said sports book betting most likely will not generate a lot of revenue but might attract customers who will spend money on hotel rooms, dining and other gambling.
The 25-day public comment period has begun. Comments may be emailed to Allen Godfrey, chairman of the gaming commission, at agodfrey@mgc.state.ms.us.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Senator Lou D’Allesandro, a stalwart supporter of expanded gaming in the Granite state for 20 years, has promised to introduce a bill to legalize sports betting if he is sent back to the statehouse by the voters in November.
“This is a multiple-billion-dollar industry, and guess what? Everybody plays,” said the senator. “It would be in the state’s best interest to control this and not let it get out of hand, which can happen.” He promised to have a bill “ready to go” if he is returned to office.
Governor Chris Sununu said he supports some form of sports betting. He made the comments during an interview with the Concord Monitor. Referring to D’Allesandro’s determination to expanding gaming, he added, “I wouldn’t bet against him.”
New Hampshire Lottery Executive Director Charles McIntyre, who would most likely be responsible for administering such a law, said the state would collect millions in taxes. “Nationally it’s $100 billion-$400 billion a year, and if New Hampshire is a half-one percent of that, the math is the math,” he said. “It’s hundreds of millions of dollars a year of gross revenues.”
The governor said many questions need to be answered before a bill is passed.
“Is it going to be a commercial industry? How’s it going to be taxed? What are the job implications? What are the workforce implications?” he said. “All of those pieces really come to bear. We’ll have to see, but I’m supportive of the concept.”
McIntyre said if the legislature hands the Lottery that responsibility it would take about six months before it could begin accepting bets.
NEW JERSEY
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy stepped into the state’s sports betting picture in a big way by anticipating $13 million in sports betting tax revenue for the state’s budget and supporting the state legislature’s stance that sports betting won’t begin until a new regulatory framework is signed into law.
New Jersey’s state budget faces a June 30 deadline. Though Murphy’s proposed budget will anticipate the $13 million in revenue, the funds are not being slated for any specific expenditure, according to the Associated Press.
Murphy’s administration is anticipating a tax rate on sports betting of between 8 and 15 percent, which agrees with sports betting bills now in the legislature. The administration also considered figures from Nevada—where sports betting has been legal—which took in $16.8 million in tax revenue in 2017, officials said.
Murphy also said that he supports waiting on implementing sports betting in the state until the legislature approves a new sports betting law and regulatory framework. That could happen as early as June 7 when both houses of the legislature could vote on their respective bills.
Technically the state’s challenge of PASPA revolved around a current law that allows for self-regulated sports betting at casinos and racetracks. The state initially lost an attempt to overturn the federal ban as unconstitutional and later passed the second law as a way around PASPA. The high court, however, struck down PASPA completely.
Still, venues like Monmouth Park Racetrack in Oceanport NJ had hoped to begin sports betting on Memorial Day under the existing law. The legislature, however, has sought to block any start to sports betting without a new law in place by including language that would ban sports betting at any facility that begins taking bets before the law is passed.
Murphy backed that position.
“The good news is that we’re going to look back on this X years from now and say this was an historic step in the right direction and we started it,” Murphy said at a public event. “Whether it’s within seven or 10 days of each other, I’m not necessarily obsessed with. I would just say this, we’re working well with the legislative teams in both houses and we’re trying to get this done as fast as possible.”
Monmouth Park, which has already built a sports book facility and bar in partnership with William Hill has said it will wait for clearance from the state to begin taking bets.
The delay has brought criticism from former Governor Chris Christie, who led the state in its court battles over PASPA, but left office before the Supreme Court decision.
“We should allow Monmouth Park to start taking bets on Memorial Day,” Christie told NJ Advance Media. “You can’t just look at the tax revenue. You have to also look at the residual of more people coming to New Jersey.”
Christie also said the state’s eventual win before the court was gratifying.
“For a long time, I was told that this was a fool’s errand and that I was wasting money and that we weren’t going to win,” Christie said. “I think that hanging in there for as long as I did, spending the money that we did, is gratifying when the highest court in the land says you were right all along.”
The delay was also criticized by Monmouth Pak officials in the wake of reports that Delaware racinos may be able to offer sports betting before New Jersey racetracks.
“Is it going to bother me? If New Jersey’s not first, shame on us,’’ Dennis Drazin, president/CEO of Darby Development, Monmouth Park’s management group told the Asbury Park Press.
“I respect the legislative process. I respect our legislative leaders,’’ Drazin said. “I want to be part of moving the state forward in this important, historic area and I don’t want to be an obstacle. Could I do something different and take a different position? Sure. But, I’m not going to. In talking to the Senate President, they want to get it right. This is our chance to develop sports betting for the state. Whether, it’s first choice or not, I want to cooperate with the legislature and the governor and do whatever they ask me to do.”
Monmouth Park will have a ceremonial sports betting event for charity on May 28.
Former state Sen. Raymond Lesniak, one of the key lawmakers who led the legal fight for sports betting, told NJ.com that the state was missing a golden opportunity.
“It’s hard to fathom,” Lesniak said. “It would have been a great day for New Jersey, with national media attention. There would have been 30,000 fans at Monmouth Park that day. We’re missing a huge opportunity to promote New Jersey nationwide.”
Some controversy over the bills before the legislature has also emerged as New Jersey’s powerful State Senate president Stephen Sweeney came out against paying professional leagues an “integrity fee” as part of sports betting bills. New Jersey’s proposed state Assembly bill allows for such a fee, though the money would go to state regulators to monitor sports betting. The bill does contain a mechanism to funnel some of the money to the leagues.
The NBA and MLB among other sports leagues are calling for a national framework for sports betting and the imposition of an integrity fee to monitor sports betting trends.
Sweeney called on legislatures in all 50 states to reject the fee, calling it “extortion.”
Sweeney released a copy of a letter that he sent to governors and legislative leaders in each state detailing how New Jersey had spent years and about $10 million in legal fees fighting to overturn PASPA.
“Essentially, the leagues are asking to be paid to allow games to be played fairly,” Sweeney wrote. “Ironically, they are calling this extortion attempt an ‘integrity fee,’ even while fully aware that providing participants a stake in the volume of betting would amount to what could more accurately be called an ‘anti-integrity fee.’ And their demand begs the question of what they would now start doing to preserve the integrity of their games that they have not been doing for years.”
Sweeney also noted that Nevada or any other state has ever paid and integrity fee and he will not move to put the state at a disadvantage “by being the only state to pay the league extortion.”
Sweeney is the principal sponsor of the state Senate’s sports betting bill.
While both the state Senate and Assembly version of the bills call for an 8 percent tax on and a 12.5 percent tax on online bets, there are some differences. The Assembly’s proposal puts the revenue directly into the state budget, but the Senate bill would earmark the money schools and programs for seniors and disabled people. The bills are currently being rushed through the committee process.
Meanwhile, the Borgata casino in Atlantic City announced that it will join Monmouth Park by starting sports betting on the first day it is legal in the state.
Though the casino is planning to construct a new sports betting facility, casino officials said they will move quickly to begin taking bets at its horse racing simulcast book, combining it into The Race & Sports Book. The Borgata is the only Atlantic City casino currently running a race book.
“As soon as regulatory approvals are in place, we will begin taking sports wagers,” said Borgata President Marcus Glover in a press statement. “Borgata is uniquely prepared to begin operations as the only Atlantic City casino with an existing race book.”
Most of Atlantic City’s casinos have said they also plan to offer sports betting, including the two casinos reopening on June 28—the Hard Rock Atlantic City and the Ocean Resort Casino.
Frank Leone, CEO of Ocean Resort Casino, told the Press of Atlantic City that the property will offer sports betting online and in-house when it opens June 28, pending regulatory and license approval.
“We believe we’re well positioned having been working in anticipation of this outcome,” Leone said. “And we fully intend to offer a best-in-class sports betting experience in a high-energy, highly engaging environment.”
Leone said the casino is planning a 7,500-square-foot sports book “dead center” on the casino floor. He also told the Press that the casino has partnered with the “global sports book leader” but did not name the company.
Also, Monmouth Park officials say they will file an application in U.S. District Court seeking to recoup hundreds of millions of dollars in damages that resulted from opposition to sports betting from the major professional sports league and NCAA, the Asbury Park Press reported.
Finally, Rush Street Interactive and Kambi Group have entered into a multi-year partnership for sports betting. Rush Street will use Kambi’s sports betting tech in its proprietary online gambling platform. The deal covers both online and retail services.
Rush Street operates four casinos in Pennsylvania, which is also expected to legalize sports betting, and operates PlaySugarHouse online casino in New Jersey.
NEW YORK
The New York State Gaming Commission is crafting regulations to put sports betting in operation at the state’s four commercial casinos.
The news comes amid continuing legislative uncertainty over how to respond statewide to the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent overturning of a 26-year-old federal ban on the industry.
There is a Senate bill envisioning a comprehensive approach that also embraces racetracks, OTBs and Indian casinos, but it’s been floating in committee since its introduction in March, with no companion bill in the Assembly, while Governor Andrew Cuomo is on the record stating that the issues are too complicated for the Legislature to resolve before it adjourns for the year on June 20.
That leaves the four privately owned casinos that opened in the last 18 months—Tioga Downs Casino Resort in the Southern Tier, del Lago Resort & Casino in the Finger Lakes, Rivers Casino & Resort in Schenectady and Resorts World Catskills—where a clearer path to regulation exists by virtue of the 2013 New York Gaming Economic Development Act, the legislation that amended the state Constitution to authorize the casinos and provided for sports betting at their locations in the event of a change in federal law.
“Commission staff have long been working on regulations that would effectuate sports gambling under the existing statutory language,” said Ron Ochrym, acting executive director of the regulatory agency. “Staff anticipates being able to provide a draft for your review in the near term.”
The catch is, those regulations would apply only to the four casinos, a fact certain to generate an outcry in a crowded New York gaming market rife with competing and politically influential interests.
Which brings the focus back to the bill sponsored by Senator John Bonacic, who chairs the Racing, Gaming and Wagering Committee in the upper house. His bill cuts everybody in on the action at a business-friendly tax rate of 8.5 percent, and he’s recently amended it to allow players to register remotely. The changes also include creation of a grievance mechanism for bettors who believe they haven’t been properly paid and allows the Gaming Commission to enter into interstate agreements on sharing information for integrity monitoring purposes.
“We’ve talked to all the professional sports teams,” he said, “the casinos, everybody that has skin in the game. We took all their concerns and came up with what we think is a compromise bill that everybody can live with. So I’m not sure what the Assembly is going to do. The Assembly has always been late to the game when it comes to gaming issues. But in terms of time, we have enough time if there’s a will to do it.”
As of this writing, no bill had been introduced in the Assembly, but J. Gary Pretlow, Bonacic’s counterpart as chair of the Committee on Racing and Wagering in the lower house, said he was planning to expedite one similar in language to Bonacic’s.
“We anticipated this coming and put in a constitutional amendment to ensure that at least casinos have the ability to participate in sports betting,” he said, “but I wish we had gone further to include racinos. The legislation we need now is to fix that, and to allow for mobile betting and for some sort of relationship building between online casinos and other entities.”
Pretlow also is sponsoring a separate bill in the Assembly to regulate online poker and said he believes the regulation of sports betting will improve its chances of passing as well.
“There are more people interested in pursuing sports betting than pursuing online poker. For whatever reason, people consider online poker to be gambling but don’t consider sports betting to be gambling. I’m going to show them this is all gaming.”
OHIO
Penn National Gaming, which operates two of Ohio’s four casinos, is urging legislators to legalize sports betting so casinos can offer it.
Bob Tenenbaum of Penn National doesn’t expect huge returns, but as “an amenity that we can offer our customers. We think it will bring more visitors into our facilities. But sports betting, for the operators, is not a big money maker at all,” he said last week.
It would take what casino operators consider a reasonable tax rate for them to push for it.
Senator Bill Coley wants to revise the state’s gaming laws, to include fantasy sports, and to look at sports betting. But he won’t be an easy sell.
“If we decide to do it,” he says, “we must do it right, but if we decide that we don’t want to do it, I think it’s time that we empower the Casino Control Commission to investigate it and route it out of the state because there’s too much of it going on already and it’s time to clean it up.”
Senator Joe Schiavoni has introduced a bill. He told WKSU that besides already talking to his colleagues, “I also talked to some of the casino owners and operators about the nuts and bolts of this — whether or not it’s just going to be in-person betting, whether or not you’re going to be able to download an app.” He added, “There’s some different things that you can look at.”
He wants to use the extra revenue for education and local government.
“Our local communities don’t have the budgets to fill pothole-riddled streets, and schools are either forced to cut essential programs or put levies on the ballot,” he said. “This bill will help address some of these funding issues… It’s my goal that this will result in a strong, bipartisan proposal that will be ready for the legislature to take up in the fall.”
The Ohio Lottery Commission says it already has the authority to offer sportsbook. Lottery Director Dennis Berg told his nine-person board last week, “That’s our first blush look at it,” but added that Governor John Kasich, who opposes expanding gaming, has said he has no plans to authorize the games. His term runs out at the end of 2018.
“I can tell you that we will not have sports gambling in Ohio immediately, but we could have it in six months or a year, we don’t know,” said Berg. “We think this can be a lottery game, no different than keno, Lucky One, instant tickets. I don’t see it as a game of skill. It’s a game of chance.”
The issue has already become a political football since the state is in the midst of an election to pick a new governor. Democratic candidate Richard Cordray sees sports betting as a way to provide more funding for emergency services, teachers and to fight opioid addiction.
Last week he said, “You have activities like this that are going on right now, illegally, not regulated, no protection for individuals, no protection for the taxpayers and the citizens of the state. I think that we would be better off if we would license and regulate this activity and bring it out of the shadows and bring it into public view.”
Republican Mike DeWine, who has never supported expanded gaming, concedes that that bus has left the station. He says if there is extra money generated it should go to fund early childhood development and to cut pay-to-play sports fees. He insists on a state policy, however, before someone does an end run around the legislature with a ballot measure.
“They will write their own check to themselves, basically, and so I think we’re better off having the people’s representatives make these decisions rather than the special interests,” he said.
Someone is already poised to do so: developer Rick Lertzman, who has proposed a constitutional amendment that would allow sports betting in restaurants, bars, fraternal clubs and other venues. He’s OK with casinos offering it too but doesn’t want to limit it to them. He hopes to put the measure on the November 2019 ballot.
Lertzman declared, “By the time they act on this, every state around us, like we had in 2009, will have sports betting. West Virginia and Pennsylvania are on the verge of enacting legislation for it; New Jersey the same way. So, we can’t allow legislators to drag their feet.”
Opinions differ on whether the legislature has the power to allow sports betting, or if the state constitution would need to be amended. Some believe that the 2009 amendment that authorized the state’s four casinos includes language that allows sports betting.
If a similar tax rate of 33 percent was applied to sports betting, it would generate about $15 million for the state.
If sports betting is legalized it would create an interesting conundrum for Dan Gilbert, who owns two Jack Entertainment casinos in the Buckeye State but also owns the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team.
Ohio went from a state with very little gaming to one of the largest. It added Keno in 2008 at local taverns. The voters authorized casino gaming in 2009. Slot machines were added to the seven racetracks in 2012.
PENNSYLVANIA
Pennsylvania was one of the four states with laws in place to immediately implement sports betting when the federal ban was removed by the U.S. Supreme Court on May 14. However, many are questioning whether sports betting will be viable with a tax rate that is by far the largest imposed on sports betting revenue yet.
Pennsylvania’s law taxes gross sports wagering revenue at 34 percent, with an additional 2 percent local-share assessment. By comparison, New Jersey’s sports betting tax is 8 percent, and Nevada’s is 6.75 percent. Pennsylvania’s application fee is $10 million—100 times higher than the $100,000 fee charged by West Virginia.
“It’s not even close,” Professor Chuck Berry, who teaches sports entertainment at Point Park University, told Pittsburgh’s KDKA-TV. “Most of the states are somewhere between 10 percent and 20 percent. Nevada is around 7 percent. And we’re going to be at 34 percent plus an extra 2 percent, 36 percent, and that doesn’t include the federal excise tax as well.”
Berry, though, predicted the high tax won’t keep casinos from applying to create sports books. “They’re going to complain about it, but at the end of the day, they have a choice,” said Pennsylvania state Senator Jay Costa, the Democratic Senate leader, on the TV station’s KD/PG Sunday Edition show. “They can decide not to participate in this type of gaming. They are going to be 9 or 10 or 11 other entities that would participate here.”
RHODE ISLAND
IGT, which is based in Providence, was the only company to respond to the Rhode Island Lottery’s RFP to operate sports betting in the state. IGT currently provides equipment and services to the Lottery.
It originally looked like there would be more competition. Eighteen firms took part in a pre-bid conference on the contract, including MGM Resorts International, Greek lottery company Intralot, and the daily fantasy sports site DraftKings, however only IGT submitted a bid by last week’s deadline.
Paul Grimaldi, spokesman for the Lottery, commented in an email, “We would have preferred more bidders.18 companies expressed an interest in the RFP. We’re not going to speculate as to why more bids weren’t submitted.”
Grimaldi said there was a possibility that the contract could be rebid if a flaw is discovered in the submission. The Lottery’s Technical Review Committee is going over the bid to see if it meets the Lottery’s requirements.
IGT did not comment. The company provided $53 million in services and equipment to the Lottery last year.
Governor Gina Raimondo already has the money sports betting will generate spent. In January’s budget she included $23.5 million, which is what the state would realize in taxes from $800 million in wagers at the state’s two casinos, Twin River and the casino being built in Tiverton.
But that might be only the beginning. Senate President Dominick Ruggerio supports expanding sports betting to satellite wagering venues and eventually online.
The RFP had asked bidders to show that they could adapt to “any future addictions to authorized sports betting” such as “innovative and cutting-edge options available as sports betting technology grows.”
IGT had anticipated the Supreme Court ruling and provided Lottery officials with updates on what other states were doing legislatively to prepare for legalization. IGT made available the adviser Ludovico Calvi, an expert on Italian sports betting.
Meanwhile, apparently sensing that the Rhode Island legislature was hostile towards paying Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the PGA Tour a 1 percent “integrity fee” representatives of the sports returned the state house last week with a proposal for a reduced percentage of 0.25 percent.
The leagues argue that they create the environment that sports betting would operate in and that they will incur an added expense to protect their sports from cheating and game fixing.
“We think it aligns interest and creates a true partnership model where we’re invested financially in the success of gaming in this state and can bring resources to bear to help grow gaming in this state,” David Miller, vice president and assistant general counsel of the PGA Tour, told lawmakers.
Dan Spillane, senior vice president and assistant general counsel for the NBA, added, “It’s meant to compensate for the risk that sports betting creates for sports leagues. Also, to fund the increased expenses that leagues are going to have to incur in order to protect the integrity of our sport.”
When the higher percentage was proposed several months ago sports betting operators had protested that this would amount to paying a 20 percent “off the top” expense because operators normally take 5 percent of the handle.
John Taylor, chairman of Twin River, is predicting that the Tiverton casino his company is building near the Rhode Island state line with Massachusetts will be open before the previously announced October 1 date—and it will be able to offer sports betting.
“I would think within the next week or so we’re going to have an announcement about a new date,” Taylor commented on the TV show Newsmakers. Both the Tiverton and Lincoln casinos Twin River owns are ready and able to accommodate sports betting should that be legalized in the state, he said. “Could we be ready with a social environment that could house this kind of equipment and this kind of product by October 1? I think we can.”
Taylor hopes sports betting will attract millennials to the two casinos. Twin River has been working on widening its appeal for years, he said. When it only offered slots, the demographic was women in their late 50s. When table games were added, men in their late 40s and 50s were added to the customer base.
Sports betting, he said, ought to widen that base further to include men in their 20s, 30s and 40s. “What we’re seeing now, and it may go to who is really the sport bettor today, is more social environments, so sports bar environment with couches and mini-environments where groups of people can get together and watch a game,” he said.
One question lawmakers are wrestling with is whether the state’s voters would need to amend Rhode Island’s constitution in order to authorize sports betting.
A representative from daily fantasy sports provider DraftKings sent the Senate Finance Committee a memo that asserts that the voters already authorized sports betting when they voted to allow “casino gaming.”
The memo was forwarded from Boies Schiller Flexner LLP. It said, “Rhode Island’s state-operated casinos can therefore offer in-state online sports gambling without a new referendum, allowing anyone in Rhode Island – even if they are not located on the casino’s property – to place bets with the casino, as long as the bet is accepted by the casino at the location approved in the voter referendum.”
Senate President Ruggerio has said he plans to ask the Rhode Island Supreme Court for an opinion on this issue in time for next year’s legislative session. That wouldn’t be in time to provide the funding that Governor Raimondo has already budget for next year.
WASHINGTON
The ilani casino and resort that opened in Washington last year is exploring adding sports betting, according to its manager, Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment, which operates a total of six casinos in various states.
It would only do so if the state jurisdictions legalized sports betting, said the gambling arm of the Mohegan tribe.
The $550 million casino opened in April 2017 on the Cowlitz Reservation near La Center.
The company issued a statement to the Columbian: “We look forward to working with the state governments for each of our properties to offer this form of entertainment in a legalized and regulated fashion. We have long felt that (we are) in a great position to offer this type of gaming at our properties.”
The Mohegans operate casinos in Pennsylvania, Louisiana, New Jersey, Connecticut and South Korea.
Cowlitz Tribal Chairman Bill Iyall, added his own comments: “We’re watching and waiting. We’ll work with other tribes, and we’ll have to chart out a path and see where it goes. Certainly we’ll be consulting with our management company as well.”
Washington state would have to legalize sports betting. Currently the only form of betting besides tribal casinos allowed is betting on horse racing. To alter that would require a two-thirds majority of the legislature placing a constitutional amendment on the ballot, according to the Seattle Times.
WEST VIRGINIA
During the 2018 legislative session, West Virginia passed a law allowing sports betting at the state’s four casinos and the Greenbrier, and on mobile phone or computer apps. State lawmakers and lottery officials estimate sports betting will bring in $5 million in the first year of implementation, $13.4 million by the third year and $28.7 million by the fifth.
State Lottery Director Alan Larrick said lottery officials have begun drafting rules and regulations, which then would be released for public comment within 30 days. “We’re going to try to beat that if we can. We’re excited, but we’ve got a lot of work to do,” Larrick said. He said the Lottery’s goal still is to have sports betting up and running in state casinos by the start of football season. “That’s certainly our goal, and we’re well toward that goal, but we’re not going to start until we know we can do it 100 percent correctly,” he said.
West Virginia Gaming and Racing Association President John Cavacini said casino owners have begun drawing up construction plans for where to physically locate sports books within their facilities. He noted any changes a state casino or racetrack must be approved by the state Lottery Commission.
“What we’re hoping is, with the sports gaming, we’re going to have new people coming into the casinos. Those people, we feel very confident, are not only going to play sports gaming, but are going to use the other facilities of the casinos.”
Larrick added he’s optimistic people coming into West Virginia to place sports wagers using smartphone apps will patronize restaurants, clubs and other venues while in the state. Under the new law, bettors can register with casino sports books via smartphone or computer and place bets as long as they’re physically in the state.
Under the new legislation, West Virginia casinos will pay $100,000 for a 5-year sports gaming license and will be taxed at a rate of 10 percent on profits.
West Virginia University Athletic Director Shane Lyons said the school also is preparing for sports betting.
“My job is first and foremost is to protect the integrity of the institution of the athletic department and the other part is to protect the integrity of the institution as a whole. With legalized gambling coming up I will have to hire additional compliance staff for monitoring and looking at it as well as the educational aspect of it. There is going to be cost associated with that and we’re going to have to step our game up.”
Lyons added, “there is 100 percent” more potential for scandal as a result of sports betting.
State Senator Mike Romano said sports gambling could turn out to be a “scourge on citizens, that is going to drain their payroll checks out of their pockets, all to make people rich who are already rich.” Romano also criticized the amount of revenue the state will get from sports gaming, which he said would be 30 cents for every $10 bet on sports in West Virginia under the sports betting law. “West Virginia is giving up the ability to make hundreds of millions of dollars off sports betting in order to enrich the casinos of the state,” he said.
The Problem Gamblers Help Network of West Virginia also is gearing up for sports wagering. Communications Director Sheila Moran said the 1-800-GAMBLER helpline is planning a statewide training session on sports betting for their network therapists, and will offer treatment to anyone who asks for help for a sports betting addiction.
WISCONSIN
The Wisconsin state constitution prohibits gambling on sports and only allows lottery games and bingo. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said changing the state constitution is “a huge hurdle” but he is “open minded to talk about it. I like the idea that 50 states get to make their own decision based on elected officials, who are closer to the people, than members of Congress. The decision has almost zero impact on Wisconsin as far as changing anything tomorrow.”
He added, “It’s a long process if it would ever happen in Wisconsin. That’s why I don’t think anything will change any time soon.” Changing the state constitution requires a bill to pass the Assembly and Senate in two consecutive sessions, followed by the approval of voters in a statewide referendum.
Governor Scott Walker said, “‘It’s in the constitution” that sports betting is banned. “It doesn’t matter what I think on that. It’s in the constitution. We’ve pointed that out before. That’s not going to change. It would take a change by the voters.” A spokesperson for Wisconsin’s Attorney General also said the Supreme Court decision “doesn’t mean much for Wisconsin other than federal law no longer favors Nevada over other states.”
Gambling compacts with tribes like Forest County Potawatomi and Ho Chunk Nation would have to be amended to accommodate sports betting. Potawatomi Hotel and Casino Chief Executive Officer and General Manager Rodney Ferguson said, “‘I saw two emails come across from my staff but I haven’t read too deeply into them yet. We’ll be looking more closely into this as the week goes on.”
