A Montana District Court judge has overturned a state rule that limited sports betting to establishments with alcoholic beverage licenses.
Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Kathy Seeley found the rule was not what lawmakers intended when they authorized sports wagering last year, according to The Associated Press.
“If the legislature intended to limit sports wagering facilities in this way, the legislature could have done so,” the judge wrote in her decision. “The court will not insert a provision that the legislature omitted.”
Montana approved sports betting in 2019, making Montana the ninth U.S. market to legalize wagering. Actual betting, however, did not launch until March of this year.
Since it began seven months ago, sports betting in Montana has brought in more than a half a million dollars in revenue ($531,000) to about 250 businesses that have sports betting at their establishments, according to the AP.
The rule that was overturned was challenged by Arete Group LLC, a downtown Billings-based limited liability company created in Oct. 2018, by attorney Lyndon Scheveck, partner in Scheveck & Salminen Law Firm PLLC.
“It’s a win for Montanans, when it comes to communities and not letting monopolies take advantage of Montanans and their businesses,” Scheveck told the AP.
