State commission notes no objection to sportsbook firm

The Arkansas Racing Commission on Thursday instructed its attorney to inform a Nevada-based company operating a site for people to buy and sell active sportsbook tickets the commission doesn’t regulate the firm under its rules.

But the commission stopped short of heeding Las Vegas-based PropSwap’s request to confirm there’s no objection to the company doing business in Arkansas, after attorneys for Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort and Southland Casino Racing said they recently learned about the company and have numerous questions about the company’s operation.

“It is necessarily true that there is no objection,” commissioner Michael Post of Altus told commission attorney Bryon Freeland.

“There might be from Southland and Oaklawn,” he said.

The commission also approved racing dates for Oaklawn and Southland for next year, and heard updates on casino expansions at Oaklawn in Hot Springs and Southland in West Memphis and the construction of the Saracen Casino Resort in Pine Bluff.

Amendment 100 to the Arkansas Constitution, approved by voters in November 2018, authorized the commission to license up to four casinos in Arkansas, including expansion of Oaklawn and Southland and a casino apiece in Jefferson and Pope counties, and also authorized sports betting. Two applications have been submitted for the casino license in Pope County.

Lloyd Levenson, chief executive officer for Atlantic City, N.J.-based Cooper Levenson attorneys, said in an email to commission Director John (Smokey) Campbell he represents PropSwap, and “although I do not believe the company will need any type of approval in Arkansas, I wanted the commission to be aware of what they do in case they hear of PropSwap’s product.”

PropSwap provides a platform for people who made a legal sports bet from a licensed sportsbook to sell their bet to an interested buyer, he said.

“PropSwap does not require gaming licenses in any state, because no new bets are produced through PropSwap,” Levenson said. “PropSwap is simply a peerto-peer marketplace for betting tickets.”

He said the company was launched in Nevada in September 2015 and is active in Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nevada, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

PropSwap has found customers on average spend $200 more per weekend on sports bets, so it benefits casinos, and bettors are able to cash in on a smart bet before it expires, Levinson said.

“PropSwap has received ZERO complaints from any gaming regulator in a state where they operate,” he wrote to Campbell.

Freeland said he reviewed the Arkansas Racing Commission’s rules and he didn’t see any prohibition on PropSwap in the commission’s rules.

“Our rules are patterned after the Nevada rules, and PropSwap is operating in Nevada,” he said.

Jennifer Rushin, a tax division manager at the state Department of Finance and Administration, said the racing commission regulates the sale of tickets and cashing of the tickets.

“Now reselling the tickets, basically there is really no way I can regulate that either. I don’t know that it happened. Even if it is happening right now, there is no way I know that,” she said. “I don’t feel like we can regulate it. There is just no way.”