Although a sports betting bill was defeated late last year in the North Dakota legislature, with the House voting yes and the Senate killing it, the bill’s author, Rep. Jim Kasper, plans to keep reintroducing it because he feels that commercial sports betting is inevitable.
“The people of North Dakota are already sports betting” he said recently. “They find ways to do it. I’m saying we legalize it in our state, and we tax it so that we have the benefit of what’s already happening for the citizens of our state and our state coffers.”
The legislative year in North Dakota is short: only 80 days every other year. Rep. Kasper and his allies have been trying to pass a commercial sports betting bill since 2019, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the federal ban.
In an interview with GGB News, the representative confirmed that he will reintroduce it at the first opportunity.
“Heck yeah!” he said. “That will be one of my prime goals!”
He talked about the back and forth this year. “We had a had a big battle between DraftKings that wants to it all online, and the people who want to do charities, plus black jack and electronic pull-tab. In my bill I had the opportunity for the charitable entities to have a kiosk. That brought down DraftKings and their lobbyist. We won in the House but the Senate killed it.”
North Dakota University System Chancellor Mark Hagerott has warned that sports betting could put too much pressure on student athletes. But possibly the staunchest opponents of commercial sports betting remains the gaming tribes, which are opening their own sportsbooks.
The Dakota Magic Casino will open a sportsbook in the next few weeks. Dakota Nation Sportsbook will also accept sports wagers at Dakota Connection in Sisseton and Dakota Sioux in Watertown—certainly in time for the Super Bowl.
In her testimony before the legislature Collette Brown, executive director of the Gaming Commission at Spirit Lake casino declared, “DraftKings don’t care about North Dakota, they are trying to maximize their profits. We shouldn’t send gaming revenue to the New York Stock Exchange.”
Despite that statement, Brown insists, “I have nothing against commercial sports betting. The testimony I gave was to authorize sports betting and for it to be allowed in North Dakota. Currently, North Dakota does not have a gaming control board. It only has a Gaming Commission and the regulatory oversight is with the Attorney General’s office who has limited staff to inspect the five tribes of North Dakota on their gaming activities, when there are over 3,000 casino-like gaming machines (electronic pull tab/e-tab devices) in over 800 locations that have a liquor license in this state that have no regulatory oversight due to no FTEs (full time employees.) That is my main concern North Dakota does not have any gaming and regulatory structure to operate and regulate sports betting.
Asked by GGB News if she feels commercial sports wagering would harm tribal revenues, Brown replied, “We are already being harmed by the electronic pull tab devices in every location that has a liquor license, specifically our revenues had taken a 60 percent decrease from August 2018 (when e-tab devices were allowed to operate) to February 2020, prior to Covid closure in March, with the addition of sports betting we would have a compounding negative affect to our casino and our tribal services. We would have had to make the hard decision to close our casino doors if this was allowed.”
Since tribes that offer sports betting usually deal with an established provider, such as FanDuel or DraftKings, we asked if that too isn’t sending revenue to the New York Stock Exchange?
Brown replied, “Tribal casinos can choose any provider. It does not have to be FanDuel or DraftKings, a partnership between a supplier and a tribe that enforces their tribal sovereignty can negotiate terms. Most well named providers are publicly traded. What they do with their piece of the money is their prerogative.”
“Of course, the tribes want the exclusivity,” said Kasper. “The tribes in North Dakota, they all have a casino and I think they make some pretty good money and yet the conditions on the reservation doesn’t seem to change. What is the leadership doing on the reservation to help their people become more self-sufficient and entrepreneurial?”
Kasper continued, “I know they have tribal colleges and the casinos are a good source of revenue, but the state does not get a nickel from tribal gaming. Sports betting is being done all over North Dakota now as we speak. They are not going to travel to the reservation. We either legalize it and allow charities to have a new source, or we kill it.”
Brown added, “We are already being harmed by the electronic pull tab devices in every location that has a liquor license. Specifically our revenues had taken a 60 percent decrease from August 2018 (when e-tab devices were allowed to operate) to February 2020, prior to Covid closure in March. With the addition of sports betting we would have a compounding negative effect to our casino and our Tribal services. We would have had to make the hard decision to close our casino doors if this was allowed.”
Brown continued, “So if the e-tab devices can harm us this much in a matter of eighteen months, with our detrimental impact the tribe had to make some hard decisions on what programs would continue on in 2019. Unfortunately there were some losses, with our education assistance, along with our tourism department to name a few.”
Kasper’s bill would have changed the law in tandem with putting a measure on the ballot to ask the voters to amend the state constitution.
“Our argument was let the people decide,” he says. “My bill would have implemented it if the constitutional amendment had passed. The senate killed that bill too. Even though we have 80 percent Republican in the legislature, we don’t get along that well.”
Kasper argues, “North Dakota should not be left out in the cold as one of the few states that doesn’t allow sports betting. It’s generating millions and billions of revenue. Why shouldn’t our citizens sports bet if they wish? This is something people can do on their electronic devices if they wish, or the charitable institutions at bar. It becomes a social thing in small towns.”
