Prominent sports attorney and author Darren Heitner, in a piece published by Forbes magazine, has offered states some advice on creating successful sports-betting laws. Heitner, author of the book How to Play the Game: What Every Sports Attorney Needs to Know, identified five essential ingredients needed to create a successful and sustainable legal sports-betting operation.
- 2. Allow for online betting
“While it is not absolutely imperative that online gambling be offered as soon as a state implements sports betting, online offerings must be part of the development plan,” Heitner wrote. “Certain bettors will be interested in traveling to a land-based casino to place wagers, but many others will opt for illegal options unless the state allows for online and mobile wagering.”
- 3. Allow in-play betting
“This is also not a requirement immediately, but states would be wise to understand the opportunity and importance to offer in-play wagering to constituents, as Nevada has been doing for a number of years.”
- 4. Don’t cave to the leagues
“Professional sports leagues, with the NBA and MLB being the most stringent proponents, have been begging for integrity/rights fees in association with the opening up of sports betting outside of Nevada. Originally, they clamored for a 1 percent fee on the handle, which has quietly been amended to a request for 0.25 percent on same. Yet, no state has yet to enact a law that offers the leagues a piece of the pie.
“At the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States, William Hill US CEO Joe Asher called the request a tax and said that taxes should be collected by the state, not by the privileged few.”
- 5. Don’t overtax
“The money that New Jersey will gain to supplement its state budget is nothing to scoff at, but it also will not be the vast riches that many are anticipating. Further, a small change in the size of the taxes applied to wagers will have a much more negative effect on the betting population than a positive effect for the states that apply the enhanced taxation formula.
“It will become clear that a state invoking a high tax rate will make many of the larger sports bettors stick with the existing black markets as opposed to migrating to the newly created legal markets.”
- 1. Allow bets on NCAA sports
“While it is understandable that college athletes may be more susceptible to taking bribes from sports bettors, pushing the activity offshore does nothing to improve the perceived integrity of college sports match-ups. To think that banning such wagers will cause them to evaporate is simply being naive.
“If integrity is what the states and NCAA are truly after, then they would do whatever is in their power to bring those wagers onshore from where they are currently being placed. However, that seems to be the opposite of what is being lobbied for at the moment.”
