Mobile sports betting stripped from Indiana’s massive gaming bill
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Sweeping changes have been made to Indiana’s massive gaming bill in the Statehouse.
A committee Wednesday night passed a new amendment to remove the mobile-betting portion of the bill. State Sen. Jon Ford co-wrote the original gaming bill. He said more than $300 million a year is spent in Indiana on illegal sports betting.
“Much of it on cellphones, using illegal apps,” the Republican from Terre Haute said Thursday. “There are right now in Indiana a little over 100 illegal apps that people can use to bet on sports.”
So, he thought, why not just make it legal and bring black market sports betting into the light?
“They don’t ask for age verification. They don’t ask for location verification,” Ford said. “These sites, who knows where they’re run out of? They could be run out of any place in the world. They’re so easy for kids to get on and use. So, my goal has been to try to bring that into a regulated market, similar to daily fantasy sports.”
“I don’t know that having electronic sports wagering be legal, stops the illegal book making,” state Rep. Ben Smaltz, a Republican from Auburn, said Thursday. “Illegal bookmakers can take credit. They can do it over the phone. It doesn’t matter if you’re 21 or not.”
On Wednesday, the Senate Public Policy Committee passed Chairman Smaltz’s amendment that strips mobile wagering from the bill.
“I have some trouble with sports wagering on mobile devices,” Smaltz said. “I think it stretches the gambling footprint to the four corners of the state, every community.”
Would Smaltz’s amendment allow someone to bet on their favorite sports team from their home computer?
“You would have to make your wager at a licensed casino operator,” Smaltz said.
“For the illegal sports wagering market, that amendment is a huge boom for them,” Ford said. “It’ll allow them to grow their business and contiue.”
The gaming conversation’s not over.
Ford said his plan is to try and get that mobile gaming portion of the bill put back in.