Proponents of legal sports betting in the U.S. picked up a big ally as Republican U.S. Senator John McCain called for congressional hearings on the issue.
McCain, a former candidate for president, said he favors allowing sports betting in any state that allows gambling. He made his remarks in an ESPN/ABC podcast that aired as his home state of Arizona was hosting the Super Bowl, the heaviest betting day in the U.S.
“We need a debate in Congress,” McCain said. “We need to have a talk with the American people and we need to probably have hearings in Congress on the whole issue so we can build consensus.”
McCain said he also favors allowing Indian tribes that run casinos to offer sports betting. But McCain also came out against online gambling and sports betting over the internet.
McCain also addressed Nevada’s exemption under current federal law that allows it to offer a true sports book when he was asked why Nevada should have sports betting and nobody else.
“I think you have an excellent point and that’s why it is a national issue,” he said. “I think that there is a place for sports gambling in states where gambling is legal.”
McCain, however, came out against online gambling.
“One of the problems I see with internet gaming is the ability to distort the playing field so it can be harmful to individuals and lead to corruption in the sport,” he said.
McCain’s comments came as the American Gaming Association estimated that $3.8 billion was bet on the Super Bowl game, played this year in Glendale Arizona.
Geoff Freeman, president of the association, was also interviewed on the podcast and pointed to those numbers as showing that the country’s current law on sports gambling “is not working.”
Freeman also called for an open debate on sports betting.
“From a casino industry perspective, we’re not sure what the right solution is here. How do we figure this out,” Freeman said. “This is a discussion we are having internally in this industry, and that’s a discussion that needs to happen.”
Freeman acknowledged that the issue isn’t likely to get attention in Congress, but it said it was good to see a public discussion on the issue starting.
Sports betting is banned in the U.S. under the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act in all but four states, which were grandfathered for offering forms of sports betting before 1992. However, only Nevada offers a true sports book.
McCain and Freeman’s comments come after National Basketball Association Commissioner Adam Silver called for expanding legalized sports gambling bin an editorial in the New York Times in November.
Silver has said that illegal sports betting is rampant anyway and legal sports betting would help the NBA attract interest. Silver is the only head of a professional sports league to come out in favor of sports betting.
In another report recently by ESPN, Silver said he has discussed sports betting with the commissioners of other pro sports leagues.
“I have talked to the commissioners in the other leagues about it, and I leave it to them to make any public statements they want to make on it,” Silver told ESPN. “I will say that certainly all of them have assigned people in their organizations to study the issue intensively.”
The professional leagues—including the NBA—have been opposing moves by New Jersey to legalize sports betting, however, saying the practice will hurt the integrity of their games. The state’s latest attempt to implement sports betting goes to an appeals court in March.
