An investment firm said it was “unlikely” Congress will act anytime soon on a federal framework for sports betting, following last week’s House subcommittee hearing on the topic.
Height Capital Markets analyst Stefanie Miller said the focus on regulation will continue in states that are ready to give the green light to the sports betting industry.
“We continue to expect a number of state legislatures will reconvene in early 2019 and begin enacting their own sports betting regimes,” Miller said in a report cited by Seeking Alpha.com.
Height’s believes that in 2019, 18 states will have legalized sports betting by the time football season begins, and 30 states will offer sports betting within five years.
The House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations spent 90 minutes exploring issues surrounding legalized sports betting, which has expanded beyond Nevada since U.S. Supreme Court ruled in May that the 25-year-old Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act was unconstitutional.
The decision opened the door for all states to legalize and regulate sports betting. Delaware, New Jersey, Mississippi and West Virginia have since launched state-approved sports betting at casinos and racetracks. Pennsylvania and Rhode Island are expected to soon follow.
Miller said early data reads on casino revenue and traffic in states where sports betting is “off and running” have been positive, “even before numbers for the first full month of college and pro football was tallied up.”
Miller said casinos in states adjacent to legalized sports betting jurisdictions are believed to have seen some traffic loss.
Last week’s hearing was supposed to focus on legal sports betting expansion since the Supreme Court ruling. But the discussion turned away from sports betting and jumped into other matters, such as Internet gaming, unregulated gambling platforms that target minors, and restoring the Interstate Federal Wire Act to its pre-2011 interpretation.
Republican Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, who chaired the hearing, said afterward, “for Congress to do nothing is the worst possible alternative.”
However, Nevada’s top gaming regulator and a representative from the Washington D.C.-based American Gaming Association, said states are doing a good job regulating sports betting.
“Just as Congress has refrained from regulating lotteries, slot machines, table games and other gambling products, it should leave sports betting oversight to the states and tribes that are closest to the market,” Sara Slane, the AGA’s senior vice president of public affairs, said in her prepared remarks.
SeekingAlpha.com contributed to this report.
