It is the first month of 2019 and we are already seeing new sports betting legislation popping up across the country.
As expected, 2019 will be a big year for many states in the country in their progress towards sports betting legalization.
As of January 2019, over 40 bills are on file across nearly 20 states. With each passing week, the list continues to grow.
Among the early action in 2019 are two new states, one of which was never expected to enter the legal sports betting world.
Arizona introduced its first sports betting bill Wednesday, January 24, 2019. The bill, known as S1158, would allow for the state’s gaming tribes to offer land-based sports betting at their casinos.
Gaming activities in Arizona are governed by the Arizona Tribal-State Gaming Compacts between the state and Native American tribes. There are currently 16 federally recognized tribes within the state of Arizona, together they operate a total of 24 gaming facilities across the state. Arizona has the most Native American land in the United States, covering about 27% of the state’s land.
Sports betting in the Grand Canyon State won’t be limited to just tribal lands. The bill would also allow the installation of kiosks inside bars or alcohol-serving establishments.
The bill would call for the Arizona Department of Gaming to oversee the industry and also have some discretion over the implementation as well. Sports betting revenue would be taxed at a maximum of 6.75 percent, which is the same as many other states, including neighbouring Nevada.
While the bill also includes provisions to allow for non-tribal entities to offer services and technology to help power sports betting in Arizona, the operations would be exclusive to the tribes.
With Arizona’s location, having Nevada to the north and New Mexico to the east, the state may be losing tons of revenue to out-of-state sports betting options. This may push the state to act a little quicker than previously thought.
One of the last states in the country expected to dabble in the sports betting world, Hawaii, filed a bill on Wednesday, January 24, 2019. H1107 would create the Hawaii Sports Wagering Corporation, which would be in charge of regulating and operating the entire sports betting industry in the Aloha State.
Hawaii is one of two states in the country with no form of legalized gambling, along with Utah. A major reason both states were considered the least likely to work towards the legalization of sports betting. Despite this, Hawaii seems determined to take steps towards a legal sports betting system within the state.
Two other bills have been presented in the House and Senate in Hawaii in the past. Which shows signs that the state has some support to possibly make sports betting happen in the near future.
H1107 would make the framework in Hawaii similar to that of Rhode Island and Delaware. Regulators would have 180 days from the passage of the bill to seek out one vendor to supply the statewide infrastructure. The process would involve a public Request For Proposal, something that D.C. sports betting regulators are trying to bypass.
The Corporation that H1107 would create will have the decision in what types of wagers to allow and by what methods. The contracted supplier would receive a yet-to-be-determined percentage of total revenue, while the state would retain the remaining profit.
- New York betting regulations appear to be coming soon. The New York State Gaming Commission is ready to talk about how it intends to regulate sports betting and will do so on Monday, January 28, 2019. The meeting will be open to the public and live streamed on the NYS Gaming website.
- In Washington D.C., the mayor signed a bill to authorize sports betting in the nation’s capital. All council bills in D.C. must go to Congress for a review period. Since the bill carries fiscal impact, that review period is 60 days.
- Maryland may not have to wait until 2020 to get sports betting approved. Originally thought that a voter approval would be needed in order to change the constitution to allow for sports betting, lawmakers are now considering a plan to start sports betting through the state lottery.
- Both Kansas and New Hampshire have hearings next week about sports betting.
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