In Iowa, supporters of online casino gambling are planning their strategy to get the approval of the legislature when it reconvenes on January 11, 2021. Iowa Casino Association President and Chief Executive Officer Wes Ehrecke said, “We’re just in the very beginning stages. We’re just trying to get the gaming companies in the state to talk through this and prioritize our issues for 2021. We’re going to get legislation drafted to have all my members vet so we can get as unified as possible and have the main talking points as unified as possible so we can all be on the same page to bring forth why this is a good thing to consider doing, and to see what kind of interest there may be.”
Ehrecke said the key issue is “getting what the language would look like, because we want this to run through our casino licenses. It’s not unlike how we legalized sports wagering and we had a mobile component to the legalized sports wagering.” Sports betting launched in Iowa on August 15, 2019. Eighteen of the state’s 19 commercial casinos offer sports betting, including 13 with mobile platforms. Currently, Iowa law still requires in-person registration for sports betting, but that will end on January 1, 2021, allowing wagerers to register remotely.
”In most places, 70 percent of the total sports wagering has been via mobile apps versus retail. Right now, there’s still a group of people that because of the coronavirus, don’t want to come into a casino. Admissions are off around 30 percent the last couple of months, so if you had something like this in place if the Covic-19 pandemic were to continue, then this could help for people to do some of their wagering but do it in what they might feel is a safe environment,” Ehrecke said.
He added, “God forbid we’d ever have to close the doors again because of the coronavirus. We could have a shelter in place and I think this could really help to have this option going forward and for people being able to wager via their mobile compared to coming into the retail. It could be a good blend of both.”
Ehrecke pointed out states with online casino gaming platforms in place weathered Covid-19 shutdowns better than those that did not. For example, he said, in May, in New Jersey, casinos were closed but the state took in more than $85 million in online casino revenue and $4.5 million in online poker revenue. In June, internet gaming revenue was $85 million, an increase of 123.1 percent compared to $38 million in June 2019.
Ehrecke said his group will wait until after the November 3 election to begin the awareness and educational process regarding online casino gambling. “We’ll have to wait until then to know who the leadership is and who we will be working with and the committee chairs,” Ehrecke said.
