Montana legalized sports betting in May 2019 and commissioned the state lottery to regulate sports betting operations in the state. The plan was to have legalized sports betting up and running before the NFL season could begin in September but things did not go to plan.
Montana has scheduled a public consultation on sports betting legislation for Oct 28 and will use public feedback to tweak its betting regulations and make changes if required. The plan for now is to get sports betting operations up and running before the end of 2019 or early next year.
The Montana Administrative Register released the proposed sports betting regulations last week and asked the public to review the proposed rules and regulations and submit their feedback.
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The draft proposal lists out the criteria for qualifying to apply for a license, outlines the sports betting licensing process and stipulates who can participate in sports betting activities. The sports betting industry in Montana will be unique to other states as Montana could allow up to 1,400 vendors to apply for a sports betting license.
This is possible because all lottery vendors who have a license from the state lottery along with a liquor license and gambling operator’s license will be eligible to apply for a sports betting license.
Montana will not have any physical sports betting licenses but will allow licensed operators to offer betting kiosks to their customers. These betting kiosks will be provided by the state lottery. Bettors who have winnings of less than $600 can make withdrawals via the lottery app. If their winnings exceed $600, they will have to claim the same directly from the lottery.
There is also provision for mobile betting in Montana and residents will be able to register for a sports betting account remotely. They will be able to place mobile sports bets when they are within the vicinity of a betting kiosk.
The lottery will impose stringent self-exclusion and responsible gambling measures in order to ensure that problem gambling does not sky-rocket in the state.
Intralot runs the Montana lottery and many expected the operator would also take over sports betting operations.
However, legislators in Montana decided that they will not make the same mistake as Washington D.C. Montana will play it safe and move forward with a request for proposal to give other operators a chance to submit their proposal to run sports betting in the state.
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