MGM Resorts International CEO Jim Murren used a speech before the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. to issue a call for legalized and regulated sports betting in the U.S.
In the speech, given just prior to the opening of MGM National Harbor across the Potomac in Maryland, Murren pledged to work with the American Gaming Association, where he serves on the board of directors, to lobby Congress to repeal the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), which bans sports betting in all but four grandfathered states.
“Look, we’ve changed,” Murren said of U.S. attitudes on sports betting. “This idea that sports betting somehow needs to be regulated in one state and illegal everywhere else really doesn’t reflect what’s happening today.”
Murren offered the fact that Las Vegas will host its first professional sports team with next year’s first season of the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights as one example that the relationship between gambling and sports has evolved.
“I built a beautiful new arena and we’ve got the first professional sports team, moving to Las Vegas in 2017,” he said. “How cool is that? Professional sports in Las Vegas—that would have been unheard of five or 10 years ago. And there will be other sports teams over time. And people love to bet on sports, and they love their daily fantasy sports.
“To drive this all in the underground, and wish it away, or don’t allow it to be transparent and regulated, is wrong. And I am going to work with the American Gaming Association and my colleagues on this.
And not everyone agrees with me on this topic. But my view is—and I hope to speak to the President-elect and to Congress on these topics—let’s regulate, and let’s be consistent in our regulation and give the American public what it wants, which is this transparent and seamless connectivity between bricks-and-mortar gaming and other forms of gaming that are completely safe, if they’re regulated.”
The AGA has made repeal of PASPA to legalize state-regulated sports betting one of its main goals for 2017, and President-elect Trump has said in the past that he feels sports betting should be legalized.
