Casino Industry Calls For 'New Legal Approach' To Sports Betting Ahead Of AG ConfirmationCongress To Hold Hearings On Sen. Jeff Sessions Of Alabama |
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As incoming U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions goes through confirmation hearings this week on Capitol Hill to become the nation’s top cop, the $40 billion American commercial casino industry is urging for a deeper change to the current approach to sports betting.
In a letter sent Tuesday to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the American Gaming Association said that the “most prevalent” form of illegal gambling is sports betting, and it estimates the unregulated market to be worth about $150 billion a year (the handle). The group said sports betting “requires a different approach” than the strategy used to combat, for example, illegal slot machine businesses across the country.
That different approach isn’t simply more police crackdowns on illegal betting, but rather regulating sports betting. Currently, regulated sports betting only happens in Nevada and to a limited extent Delaware. However, there are now casinos in 40 states and competition for gambling dollars is increasing.
The 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) banned sports betting outside of jurisdictions grandfathered in, and that’s the law the AGA wants Congress to revisit as soon as this year. It could be repealed, replaced or amended.
In October, New Jersey Congressman Frank Pallone, a Democrat, said he intends to introduce legislation to legalize sports books, but nothing has officially been put on the table yet. The Garden State has unsuccessfully tried to circumvent PASPA by passing its own sports betting law, but the major pro sports leagues filed a lawsuit to block sports betting in economically depressed Atlantic City.
An overhaul to PASPA, rather than a state-by-state patchwork of sports betting laws, is what the casino industry prefers. For the most part, the major sports leagues have also indicated that’s the route they would be most comfortable with.
“Instead of restricting betting, the federal ban has only fueled a growing $150 billion illegal market with no consumer protections, no tax benefits for communities and no safeguards for sport integrity,” AGA President and CEO Freeman wrote in the letter. “The past 25 years and society’s evolving attitudes have proven that enforcement is very unlikely to work, which is why we are focused on regulation—which the incoming president appears to support.”
The AGA estimates that more than $4 billion worth of illegal wagers will be placed on next month’s Super Bowl. The black market is so large that law enforcement has its hands tied when it comes to putting a stop to it.
“The next attorney general will be forced to use limited resources in the most effective manner,” Freeman said. “We encourage a new legal approach that would dramatically reduce the illegal sports betting market and allow law enforcement at every level to focus on other pressing matters. In the meantime, continued vigilance, focus and resources are required to combat other forms of illegal gambling and, until the federal ban is lifted, illicit sports betting.”
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