The Oregon Lottery is moving quickly introduce sports betting where wagers could be made on a mobile app. The first step will be to roll out an app that will enable players to see if they have a winning ticket.
The ability to bet will come later, probably not before the end of the summer, at which time there will be mobile sports betting.
Oregon Lottery Senior Public Affairs Officer Chuck Baumann told Sports Handle, “The fact of the matter is that when our app launches, there won’t be any ability to buy any of our products,” Oregon Lottery Senior Public Affairs Officer Chuck Baumann told Sports Handle Monday. “It will simply be that players will have ability to check tickets to see if they are winners, as well as get other information, like jackpot alerts, a look at where (lottery) money goes, and there will be a retailer finder. At some point in time, and we’re not sure what that’s going to look like, we will offer games and some sort of sports betting.”
Oregon is in something of a sweet spot in that it was one of the four states allowed to offer sports betting before the Supreme Court struck down the ban. It was ready to go without any additional language needing from the legislature.
The details on the app aren’t worked out yet, said Baumann.
The state has nine tribal casinos, a racetrack and 11 off track betting operations. It also has a “hub” system that enables it to accept wagers on racing from out of state. Any and all of these would be able to offer sports betting once the lottery offers it.
According to Baumann, “The pact that the state has with the tribal casinos is that any games that the state lottery offers, they can offer,” Baumann said. “So, if we can all work together … that would be better.”
