SAFE Bet Act Returns, Seeking Federal Oversight of Sports Betting
The SAFE Bet Act that would bring federal regulation to the burgeoning sportsbook industry is back and making headlines once again.
Federal legislators reintroduced a Bill to reign in sports betting. © Wilmer Olano UnSplash
The SAFE Bet Act Returns: Federal Oversight of Sports Betting?
We will say this about Senator Richard Blumenthal and Rep. Paul Tonko: they are nothing if not persistent. After last year’s failed bid to introduce their attempt at federal regulations, the pair returned on Tuesday once again, flogging their SAFE Bet Act.
This Bill has a little bit of something for everyone in the anti-gambling crowd, from a required Surgeon General’s investigation into the perils of online gambling up to and including an entire shutdown of sports betting until the Federal government can lay out responsible gaming guidelines.
It should also ensure that each state meets certain requirements before the federal government then issues them an exception to the law.
In many ways, the rapid growth and wild west mentality of some of the nation’s largest sportsbook and casino operators have brought on some of these possible onerous federal interventions by overstepping boundaries.
Those include virtually non-stop sportsbook advertising in some markets, a litany of responsible gaming mishaps from cheating scandals to executives turning a blind eye to know your customer laws. Even banning players that the sportsbooks deemed too good for them is up there.
One interesting new twist that the pair seems to have made is the addition of a provision requiring states to work with Federal investigators to help shut down illegal gaming in their markets as a prerequisite for licensing.
This is broadly seen as yet another shot across the bows of both Sweepstakes operators and grey market offshore casinos that many states, including Mississippi, Maryland, and Michigan, have already attempted to blacklist.
Also, in case anyone missed the finer point of timing, the legislators were clear about using the beginning of March Madness, the college basketball tournament, which is one of the most heavily wagered-on group of events in the sports calendar.
Drawing attention to their reintroduction of their Bill, despite various journalists and pundits’ barrels of ink being wasted on it went exactly nowhere in either the House or Senate last year despite numerous press conferences and appearances.
We are in the midst of a sports betting boom that is one of the most severe public health problems today. It is the cause of addiction for millions of Americans with severe gambling problems.– Richard Blumenthal, Senator, Blumenthal Press Release
In its press conference, Blumenthal once again raged against the sports betting industry and casino gaming in general before circling back to the idea that he is not out to destroy the sports betting industry but to slow it down.
Representative Paul Tonko mentioned the sports betting industry’s nearly $14 billion revenue but called it money extracted from the pockets of the poor.
Surprisingly, no mention was made of the $2.9 billion that was paid to states, the nearly $400 million in federal excise taxes paid, or the tens of thousands of jobs the industry creates.
The SAFE Bet Act is unlikely to gain much traction until it gets a few Republican Senators or Congressmen on board in what is already the most partisan legislature the country has ever seen.
It should serve as a wake-up call to both sportsbooks and state governments, which are increasingly reliant on taxes generated by the business, to better police themselves if they don’t want the Feds to do it.
