SAN DIEGO – A veteran Las Vegas sportsbook operator expects the number of Indian casino sports betting facilities to quadruple by the end of the year and he believes that tribes nationally must come together to lessen their risk when it comes to sports wagers.
US Bookmaking President Vic Salerno said he wouldn’t be surprised if the number of books among Native American tribes jump from the current three to a dozen by the end of 2019. Salerno was the keynote speaker Monday to open the National Indian Gaming Association conference and trade show where he talked about the future of tribal sports books.
Sports betting has proliferated since the U.S. Supreme Court in May struck down a federal ban on single-gaming sports wagers.
The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians started offering sports betting last summer after it struck a deal with International Game Technology and opened a sports book at the Pearl River Resorts’ Golden Moon Hotel & Casino.
Salerno operates a sports book on behalf of the Pueblo Santa Ana near Albuquerque, New Mexico, which opened in October. The Buffalo Thunder Casino in New Mexico also recently added a sportsbook.
“In the next six months, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a tremendous influx of people – Illinois and Indiana and Iowa are close and Michigan and most of them are tribal,” Salerno said afterward.
New York is among those in the mix to add tribal sports books.
“What’s holding up some is state approval and their compacts and whether they have to reopen them or not,” Salerno said.
Salerno said that tribal sports books “have a tremendous advantage over (other casinos) if they get together and share the risk. It’s because of taxes. Most of them are not subject to state taxes.”
He said Native American casinos could have a central clearing house. For example, in an NFL game between Seattle and New England, a tribe in Washington that is taking a large amount of wagers on the Seahawks and an East Coast tribe that is taking action on the Patriots can limit their loses.
“There are some people that believe the tribes do have an exemption from the Federal Wire Act for transferring money across state lines,” Salerno said. “As long as the bet takes place in the state or on the reservation and paid on that reservation, I don’t think it violates the Wire Act.”
Salerno said he sees that happening with tribes that have multiple jurisdictions for sharing the risk.
Tribes have a big advantage over commercial books when it comes to taxes, Salerno said, pointing out a 36 percent tax in Pennsylvania for sports books.
“You can do a lot with that 36 percent,” Salerno said.
During his keynote address, Salerno talked about the use of artificial intelligence that’s coming to the sports book industry and already here.
“It’s more on the bookmaker side than it is on the player’s side,” Salerno said, though nothing the computer programs that helped beat Nevada sports books in the past. “We will go to more sophisticated algorithms. There’s a lot more player tracking going on now down the detail and what a player bets on and whether they can take a big bet from them on a sport but let them bet whatever they want on another sport.”
During an interview afterward, Salerno also weighed in what is happening with the proliferation of sports betting in New Jersey in what he called “a race to the bottom.” He also cited how some are giving refunds for bad beats and losing bets.
“With all those promotions they are doing, it’s costing them a lot more than net win and the net win isn’t large to start with,” Salerno said. “Where are we going to go from there? How much more can we get? I really believe that there are some companies that are buying their business with the idea of later going on with a public offering. They don’t care about winning or losing. They want to capture the market and build their database.”
