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CalvinAyre - Full Story/Source
t’s a holiday thing. Most parents have been here: you get the kids the latest, shiniest,whiz-bang gotta-have gadget in the store, maybe a new design of bicycle. And you get it home Christmas Eve, and all of a sudden it dawns on you that you’re gonna have to assemble this thing. It’s way more complicated than anything you had as a child. And you don’t have the necessary tools, like 52-millimeter offset hex wrenches, and anyway the assembly instructions read like they were translated from Chinese (they probably were).
Likewise, U.S. state governments are unwrapping and beginning to assemble one of the biggest presents they ever got. Namely, legalized Sports Betting, finally granted to them by the Supreme Court decision in Murphy v NCAA. But just as with the do-it-yourself bicycle, Sports Betting is presenting unique challenges.
The new design
Just now, eight U.S. states have Sports Betting programs up and running; two more plus the District of Columbia have passed enabling legislation, and 14 more are considering sports gambling bills put before their respective legislatures.
But just as with Daddy sweating to put together the new-design bicycle, lawmakers are finding out that gambling is a far different proposition from what they remember. For one thing, gambling is far more common than it was when state gambling laws were written. Today 48 of the 50 states license some form of gambling, usually several at once. The massive expansion of lotteries (44 states have them now) means that gambling facilities are available in just about every gas station and liquor store in the country. Since it’s a part of everyday life now, the social stigma against gambling has faded.
Add to that the effects of the digital revolution. Gambling services and facilities have become much more flexible. Digital programming means that it is now possible to “mix-and-match” game elements in ways never seen before. In fact, it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell whether a given activity is legally “gambling” or not. Video games especially have evolved into unheard of complexity, as witness developments like the “loot box” controversy and the optional purchase of consumable gaming elements (the “freemium” format).
And not only has the form changed, today the function of gambling is different as well. Gambling revenues have become a permanent part of the state income stream, so much so that public money is now used to advertise it.
The old tools
And lawmakers, like Dad, have to work with tools that no longer really fit the new designs. American state gambling laws are all over the road. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia don’t even have a definition of what “gambling” is or is not, on their statute books. Those that do vary between precisely describing obsolete games and devices (California blacklists games that were last played during the Gold Rush,) and all but unintelligible vagueness (Tennessee bans transactions which are “in any degree dependent on chance”, whatever that may mean).
And just as Dad’s old- fashioned wrench or screwdriver may not reach all the way, state gambling laws don’t reach outside state boundaries, barring exceptional circumstances. Gambling has not only gone digital, it’s gone global. How far is U.S. state law jurisdiction supposed to reach?
Unclear instructions
The “assembly guide” that Dad has to consult is contradictory: the schematic drawing shows one thing, the words describe something else again. He’s not completely sure what the finished item should look like.
Likewise from a legal point of view, there are already big differences in how individual states treat gambling as a whole, Sports Betting specifically, and mobile or online bets in particular.
New Jersey, which led the charge to legalize sports bets, already has no less than eight state licensed online books. And it’s interesting to note that two of the biggest are FanDuel and DraftKings, who were already giants in the daily fantasy sports (DFS) format. Pennsylvania is supposed to be next, with the introduction of mobile betting tentatively slated for 2019. West Virginia is also considering mobile bets in addition to its three licensed venues (and two more coming). For the rest of the states that license Sports Betting, or are thinking of it, the focus seems to be on physical, brick-and-mortar establishments. Online gaming appears as an afterthought, where it is mentioned at all.
t’s a holiday thing. Most parents have been here: you get the kids the latest, shiniest,whiz-bang gotta-have gadget in the store, maybe a new design of bicycle. And you get it home Christmas Eve, and all of a sudden it dawns on you that you’re gonna have to assemble this thing. It’s way more complicated than anything you had as a child. And you don’t have the necessary tools, like 52-millimeter offset hex wrenches, and anyway the assembly instructions read like they were translated from Chinese (they probably were).
Likewise, U.S. state governments are unwrapping and beginning to assemble one of the biggest presents they ever got. Namely, legalized Sports Betting, finally granted to them by the Supreme Court decision in Murphy v NCAA. But just as with the do-it-yourself bicycle, Sports Betting is presenting unique challenges.
The new design
Just now, eight U.S. states have Sports Betting programs up and running; two more plus the District of Columbia have passed enabling legislation, and 14 more are considering sports gambling bills put before their respective legislatures.
But just as with Daddy sweating to put together the new-design bicycle, lawmakers are finding out that gambling is a far different proposition from what they remember. For one thing, gambling is far more common than it was when state gambling laws were written. Today 48 of the 50 states license some form of gambling, usually several at once. The massive expansion of lotteries (44 states have them now) means that gambling facilities are available in just about every gas station and liquor store in the country. Since it’s a part of everyday life now, the social stigma against gambling has faded.
Add to that the effects of the digital revolution. Gambling services and facilities have become much more flexible. Digital programming means that it is now possible to “mix-and-match” game elements in ways never seen before. In fact, it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell whether a given activity is legally “gambling” or not. Video games especially have evolved into unheard of complexity, as witness developments like the “loot box” controversy and the optional purchase of consumable gaming elements (the “freemium” format).
And not only has the form changed, today the function of gambling is different as well. Gambling revenues have become a permanent part of the state income stream, so much so that public money is now used to advertise it.
The old tools
And lawmakers, like Dad, have to work with tools that no longer really fit the new designs. American state gambling laws are all over the road. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia don’t even have a definition of what “gambling” is or is not, on their statute books. Those that do vary between precisely describing obsolete games and devices (California blacklists games that were last played during the Gold Rush,) and all but unintelligible vagueness (Tennessee bans transactions which are “in any degree dependent on chance”, whatever that may mean).
And just as Dad’s old- fashioned wrench or screwdriver may not reach all the way, state gambling laws don’t reach outside state boundaries, barring exceptional circumstances. Gambling has not only gone digital, it’s gone global. How far is U.S. state law jurisdiction supposed to reach?
Unclear instructions
The “assembly guide” that Dad has to consult is contradictory: the schematic drawing shows one thing, the words describe something else again. He’s not completely sure what the finished item should look like.
Likewise from a legal point of view, there are already big differences in how individual states treat gambling as a whole, Sports Betting specifically, and mobile or online bets in particular.
New Jersey, which led the charge to legalize sports bets, already has no less than eight state licensed online books. And it’s interesting to note that two of the biggest are FanDuel and DraftKings, who were already giants in the daily fantasy sports (DFS) format. Pennsylvania is supposed to be next, with the introduction of mobile betting tentatively slated for 2019. West Virginia is also considering mobile bets in addition to its three licensed venues (and two more coming). For the rest of the states that license Sports Betting, or are thinking of it, the focus seems to be on physical, brick-and-mortar establishments. Online gaming appears as an afterthought, where it is mentioned at all.
