March Madness fuels debate on legal sports gambling

ATLANTA – March Madness is shining a spotlight on sports betting across the United States. The practice is already legal in a majority of states and Washington, D.C., leaving about a dozen, including California, Texas, Utah and Hawaii, where bets on sports are illegal.

Americans will legally wager $3.3 billion on the NCAA men’s and women’s Division I basketball tournaments this year, the American Gaming Association said this month, an increase of more than 50 percent in the last three years.

Behind the scenes, major industry players are working. Sports betting companies have lobbied lawmakers and regulators on gambling policy, including sports betting laws, tax structures and robust industry regulation.

Lori Kalani, a responsible gaming officer for DraftKings, told “Raising America” that states prohibiting sports betting are missing out — not only on tax revenue, but also on the opportunity to provide consumers with a regulated and safer environment. She argued that ignoring the issue does not stop betting from happening.

“It’s happening. Let’s, you know, let’s all be on the same page,” she said. “I’d say in the states where we are licensed and we’re regulated, it is not an adversarial relationship. We are working together with the regulators because we all want the same thing. We want to have regulations.”

States where sports betting is illegal........

© The Hill