The Oregon State Lottery’s spokesman told the Oregonian last week that “we’re getting close” to opening the Oregon Lottery Scoreboard sports betting operation. This will make Oregon the 12th state to offer retail sports betting.
The sportsbook operation will unfold in phases, with Phase I being a digital sportsbook that will provide wagers on all professional sports including NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, pro soccer, tennis, MMA, darts, motor sports, snooker, cricket, etc. College sports will not be offered in the initial phase—if ever.
Bettors must be 21 or older. The game is geo-fenced to ensure that wagers occur within Oregon state lines but not on an Indian reservation. And players must have a valid Social Security number.
The lottery will accept three types of bets: single-game bets, parlays and in-game wagering. Bets may be made with a mobile app or from a website. They can set up accounts that will accept deposits, and winnings will be deposited directly into the account.
Phase II will come in the middle of 2020 and will include physical wagering kiosks at lottery retail venues. Testing of the kiosks will be taking place in upcoming months in conjunction with the launch of the online phase. The kiosks will offer full sports wagering.
The lottery initially said it hoped to begin offering a sportsbook in time for the NFL season, but that seems less likely the closer the opening of the season approaches.
Lottery spokesman Matthew Shelby told Sports Handle, “As we’ve been looking to get back into the sports betting market—it’s been more than a decade since we’ve had any—we’re kind of easing into it.” He continued, “Professional sports is an easier sell to the broader audience. We may revisit wagering on collegiate events later on. It’s a business decision for us right now. There is concern on our commission about adding colleges, never say never, but we thought it best to shy away from colleges right now.”
An unnamed source at the lottery told the Oregonian, “Once we are satisfied with everything, we’ll move it into a production environment. Then we do one more round of security testing to ensure everything performs the same in the live environment as it did in testing. The testing will drive our launch date, as opposed to cutting corners to hit the first kickoff.”
More than half of the taxes raised by the lottery sports betting operation will go to education.
Oregon was one of the four states grandfathered by the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA). The act banned sports betting for the rest of the U.S. until it was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court last year. The lottery continued to offer a form of parlay sports betting until 2007.
State officials have determined that no new legislation is needed for the lottery to revive sports betting.
The lottery is operating a system that was previously developed by SBTech for Pennsylvania sports betting and was therefore available when the lottery partnered with SBTech.
Meanwhile, a tribal casino 85 miles from Portland, the Oceanfront Casino Chinook Winds, in Lincoln City, will offer the first actual sportsbook lounge in the state beginning August 27. The casino is operated by the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians of Oregon.
The sportsbook lounge will be operated for the tribe by Las Vegas Dissemination Company (LVDC). Interviewed by US Bets, Director of Sales Jay Vaccaro commented, “The lounge will open with Nevada-style sports wagering, opening with three teller terminals and one self-serve kiosk.” He added, “It will be retail betting. Right now, the compact only allows for brick-and-mortar sports wagering.”
Director of Casino Operations Will Robertson commented, “This is an exciting time for the Siletz Tribe, being the first Oregon casino to launch live sports wagering in the state of Oregon. Once the bet is placed the guest can watch the game in the sports wagering lounge or just down the way in the Rogue River Steakhouse Lounge where the games will be available for viewing.”
Unlike the lottery version, Chinook Winds will take wagers on college games, which could give it a competitive advantage over the state system.
