NFL officials will testify at hearing
The U.S. House of Representatives posted a schedule for the first congressional hearing on legalized sports betting last Wednesday. It will be the first crack at legalized sports betting by the U.S. Congress since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal ban on sports betting under the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) as unconstitutional.
The hearing, before the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, was listed as happening at 2 p.m. tomorrow, June 26. However, late last week, ESPN’s David Purdum reported on the network’s website that the hearing, titled “Post-PASPA: An Examination of Sports Betting in America,” was postponed only hours after the date was posted, with no new date for the hearing noted.
The hearing, when it does take place, will examine the prospects of a federal bill to regulate sports wagering, a move that the American Gaming Association and other sports-betting proponents have declared unnecessary. “States and tribes have proven to be effective regulators of gaming,” AGA President and CEO Geoff Freeman said at the recent customer conference staged by slot-maker AGS. “There’s nothing left for Washington to do. They tried that once, and we saw how it worked.”
No bill to regulate sports betting has surfaced yet in Congress, although Senator Orrin Hatch announced a plan to draft a bill.
The subcommittee is a part of the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA).
ESPN reported that representatives of the National Football League are among those invited to testify at the sports-betting hearing. The NFL has indicated that it is working with Hatch to formulate a plan for federal regulation of sports betting.
Freeman also is expected to testify. So far, Major League Baseball has struck out, and the NBA has shot an air ball. But these pro sports leagues aren’t ready to give up in their efforts to make an “integrity fee” part of future legislation that legalizes sports betting.
It was not known whether or not representatives of other leagues will testify at the hearing, but one of the likely topics of discussion will be the so-called “integrity fees”—also referred to as “royalty fees”—being sought by the professional sports leagues as a cut of wagers on their games. The fees have been a controversial proposal among sports-betting advocates, since they propose taking a cut of wagers, potentially wiping out an already slim profit margin for legal books.
Delaware and New Jersey, the first two states to enact sports betting, both rejected league calls for a cut of the action. Lawmakers in Nevada, which has operated sports books for decades, have said they will never approve such a fee for the leagues.
Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association have led lobbying efforts at the state level for an integrity fee. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, while not have been the leaders in trying to lobby states for sports leagues to get a cut of betting profits. PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan has also said the tour is in favor of the idea.
The NFL and NHL have not officially joined forces with the NBA and MLB for an “integrity fee,” and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has said he will seek some type of negotiated fee for consumer protection, intellectual property and extra costs related to protecting the integrity of the games.
ESPN reports that New York State lobbying records show that the leagues are sparing no expenses, jointly paying $58,500 a month to retain the services of 21 lobbyists in the quest for a piece of the sports-betting action.
Dennis Drazin, CEO of Monmouth Park’s management company in New Jersey, criticized the league efforts in an interview last week with NBC News, noting that the leagues previously spent their money fighting the legalization of sports betting, forcing New Jersey to spend millions in appealing the lower-court blocking of its sports-betting law to the Supreme Court.
“The leagues could have sat down with us years ago, but they didn’t,” Drazin said. “I just think it’s wrong for them to be coming here at this point trying to seek any money from us.”
New York sports betting hearings are reportedly the next target of the leagues’ lobbying efforts. West Virginia passed a sports betting bill with no integrity fee, but Governor Jim Justice said the state has reached and agreement for the casinos to pay fees with the states.
Freeman has said any fees to the sports leagues should be paid under private agreements between operators and the leagues, not by a payment mandated by the state or federal governments.
Meanwhile, professional players’ unions are now engaged in lobbying efforts to include safeguards in sports-betting laws that protect players from harassment from anyone seeking to manipulate them to fix games or alter their performance.
According to a document being circulated to state and federal lawmakers by the Associated Press, attorneys for five players’ unions are urging states to provisions that protect players who report contact with people seeking to influence games. The unions are also asking that athletes, officials and members of their families be protected “from physical attacks, verbal threats, or other forms of harassment occurring in the workplace or elsewhere.”
“Players are concerned the introduction of widespread sports betting has the potential to fundamentally change the unique relationship—the bond—between players and fans,” said Chris Dahl, a spokesman for the baseball players’ union, according to the AP. “They wonder if the human elements of the game that so often create emotional highs and lows will come to be viewed through the lens of a gambler’s cynicism.”
