State lawmakers weighing details of legal sports betting
Halfway through the General Assembly session, Maryland lawmakers are still working out how, exactly, to set up a new sports gambling industry in the state.
Voters gave overwhelming approval to the broad concept of legalized betting on sports during last fall’s general election. Now it’s up to lawmakers to decide how many licenses to grant, who can apply for them and how much of a cut the state will take to fund improvements to public schools.
Members of a House of Delegates committee spent more than two hours Thursday hearing testimony on a detailed proposal from Democratic Speaker Adrienne A. Jones. The state Senate, meanwhile, is gradually hashing out issues in a work group before introducing a bill with specifics.
Lawmakers are focused on how best to ensure that minority-owned businesses get a stake in this expansion of the gambling industry, which has traditionally favored whiteowned corporations.
Scores of businesses and entrepreneurs, meanwhile, are angling to get a chance to compete for licenses, with many urging lawmakers to create more — or even unlimited — sports betting licenses.
The speaker’s bill would create licenses for in-person betting at the state’s casinos and main thoroughbred horse racing tracks, plus up to five more locations that would be open to competition. One possible site is the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium.
There also would be 10 licenses for online betting through websites and mobile apps, and those would be open to competition.
Some in the gambling industry who testified on the speaker’s bill Thursday suggested having 20 or even 24 mobile licenses in Maryland.
“More competition will bring more revenue to the state,” said John Pappas of iDEA Growth, an advocacy group for the online gaming industry.
Companies will have to pay upfront application and licensing fees to the state, and the state will get a share of the profits in the form of taxes, he said.
In states where sports betting is legal, mobile betting takes up the lion’s share of the bets and drives the profits. In New Jersey, for example, 86% of sports betting revenue comes from online bets.
Casinos even acknowledge that having in-person betting is more about having another offering for customers, and less about making money. Mobile betting, they say, is where the money is.
“We view this as more of an amenity because our competitor states have it,” said P.J. Hogan, a lobbyist representing the Rocky Gap Casino in Western Maryland.
The owners of the state’s six casinos came to the table asking for not only licenses for in-person sports betting, which they would get under the speaker’s bill, but also guaranteed mobile licenses as well. Under the bill as proposed, they’d have to apply separately for mobile licenses.
The smaller companies that want to get into the industry see the casinos as a potential barrier. If there are eight guaranteed in-person licenses at casinos and tracks, those same companies are likely to easily win most of the mobile betting licenses, too, they argue.
The number of licenses is also a concern for state senators, who are holding work group meetings with dozens of stakeholders to resolve details before proposing a bill.
Both the House and Senate are focused on ensuring that minority-owned companies and minority investors are able to participate in the sports betting industry. Jones’ bill would allow a state licensing commission to include measures to ensure minority participation, and also requires companies that win licenses to show proof of attempts to partner with minority investors.
The House has not yet scheduled a vote on the speaker’s bill, and lawmakers on the Ways and Means Committee are expected to hold work sessions on the bill before a vote.
The Senate work group does not have a timeline for drafting and introducing a bill.