The American Gaming Association’s drive to legalize sports betting in the United States has won over a key ally following a vote by the Unites States Conference of Mayors to join the campaign.
“We’re pleased that mayors across the country have become the latest stakeholders to support a new approach to sports betting in the United States,” Sara Rayme, the association’s senior vice president of public affairs, told news site GamblingCompliance. “We look forward to working closely with them.”
The mayors, meeting last month in Indianapolis, adopted a non-binding resolution— “Addressing Illegal Sports Betting Through Regulation”—in which they called for a framework of “strict regulation, rigorous consumer protections, taxation of revenues to benefit local communities and robust tools and resources for law enforcement to root out illegal sports betting and uphold the integrity of the games”.
The USCM also said it will work with the AGA to study the potential benefits of a regulated market. In return, the AGA will add the mayors to its stakeholder advisory committee, which includes law enforcement agencies, consumers and sports leagues.
The Washington, D.C.-based AGA, the national lobbying arm of the commercial casino industry, has been building a coalition of supporters from the industry and from law enforcement, government and professional sports to prevail on Congress to repeal the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which was passed in 1992 to prevent the spread of sports betting and had the effect of restricting legal wagering to Nevada and three other states—Oregon, Montana and Delaware—that had betting regulations in place at time the act was passed
Nevada reported its legal bookmakers took in $4.2 billion in wagers last year, a drop in the bucket compared to the $149 billion Rayme estimates was bet illegally.
Rayme says she expects PASPA will fall in the next three to five years.
In the meantime, the spread of daily fantasy sports was dealt a blow with a notification from the Delaware Department of Justice that real-money play is illegal in the state.
The Associated Press reports that the Attorney General’s Office has sent cease-and-desist letters to DraftKings, FanDuel and Yahoo telling them that Delaware law does not allow them to charge players to play or players to win monetary prizes.
The DOJ first notified state regulators in March that the games were not permitted under Delaware law. Authorities said they initially refrained from taking formal action because of pending legislation, but that formal notices were sent after the Legislature adjourned last week without considering a bill that would allow online fantasy sports betting.
