Published On: Thu, Feb 27th, 2020

House and Senate Leaders Started 2020 Engaged in Efforts to Make Sports Betting a Legal Activity

House and Senate Leaders Started 2020 Engaged in Efforts to Make Sports Betting a Legal Activity

For a country the size of the US, and for a country steeped in such sporting greatness, it does seem surprising that sports betting is not an everyday activity across the whole country. Surely there would such a huge market for betting, with so many mainstream sports played and watched from coast to coast? And they are not just popular in the US, but sports such as American football, basketball, baseball, soccer, ice hockey, golf, tennis, IndyCar, NASCAR, even lacrosse have such worldwide appeal. To trace the reason why sports betting was banned in the first place, we need to take a short trip back in time.

Back in 1961, the United States passed a federal law labelled the Interstate Wire Act, with its aim being to control betting businesses across states. The clarity of the act itself has been debated for decades but most states are safe in the knowledge that it applies only to sports betting/gambling and not to activities such as lottery or casino games. More recently in 1992, a law called “Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act” (PAPSA) was passed which prohibited states from authorized sports betting. The potential for sports betting looked bleak, despite the efforts of states like New Jersey, who have been battling for decades to have sports betting legalized. The state even ended up in court after defying the federal law. However, due to a recent challenge to PAPSA, and backed up by the US constitution, sports betting might soon be coming to more sporting venues and arenas in more states in America.

It was written by Justice Samuel Alito, “Congress can regulate sports gambling directly, but if it elects not to do so, each State is free to act on its own.” Or a simplified interpretation of this line, would be that individual states are free to govern their own citizens and essentially act based on the verdict of the majority. Congress would have no right to intervene. So, suddenly, states such as New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Mississippi and Florida now see a window of opportunity into the sports betting industry, including the regulation surrounding the wide array of promotional offers, such as free bets and no deposit bonuses. And this will come as a relief, in particularly to New Jersey and their battle to legalize sports betting activity. After all the court battles against most professional sports leagues, this interpreted loophole could indeed give the people of New Jersey the power, and from previous votes, the prospects look good for NJ.

Florida however have a few more obstacles to clear before they can get sports betting legalized in their state, and that obstacle comes in the form of the Seminole tribe. For decades, the state has been at loggerheads with the tribe about casinos and claims to certain casinos and the profits produced by the gaming activity. There have been agreements and disagreements along the way, and many will see the relationship between the two as crucial to the introduction of sports betting. The Seminole tribe owns seven casinos in the state, all built on tribal ground and they are keen to keep hold of these establishments and any gains from them. But an agreement in 2010 provided a bit of relief in the relations between the state and the tribe. A long-term agreement was put in place, which would see profits from its casinos shared (the exact percentage is unknown) in exchange for exclusive rights to hold paid card games in their casinos. However, in the past five years, the two parties have been at war again, with the tribe accusing the state of going back on the terms of the agreement. The Seminoles believe that privately-owned casinos (pari-mutuels) are taking advantage of a loophole in state law and are now hosting the above-mentioned paid card games. Following a ruling in 2016, U.S District Judge Robert Hinkle ruled in favor of the Seminoles, which led to former Governor Rick Scott vowing to take action against the pari-mutuels. Payments from the tribe to the state have since continued. So, parity in Florida has been preserved, which can only be seen by supporters of sports betting as positive.

New Jersey and Florida are two different examples of the path to legalizing sports betting in America, but they are both examples of progress. It remains to be seen the exact terms of the legalities around any such openings, with regulations expected to be tight. The promotions and offers with regulated bookies that are available in other territories may not be as commonplace in the US, as one would expect to see a stringent regulatory practice enforced, potentially at state-level. In the opinion of some major sports leagues, the introduction of betting activity could be a threat to the integrity of the sport. There have been plenty of examples in cricket and soccer in the past of match-fixing and this is perhaps something the leagues and associations want to avoid. But what cannot be ignored, is that the landscape of sports betting is changing, and we could soon see the dominos of states pushing to legalize it starting to fall.

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