After COVID-19 curtailed state legislative sessions nationwide in 2020, lawmakers more than made up for lost time in 2021 on the sports betting legalization front. Nearly a dozen states passed sports betting legalization bills or accepted their first legal wagers in 2021, capping off another busy stretch in the three years since the Supreme Court struck down the federal wagering ban in 2018.
Now that more than 30 states either take legal sports bets or have passed laws to do so, there are only a limited number of opportunities left for states to legalize wagering. Still, there are some major states to look at in 2022 to help fill in the U.S. sports betting map;
California
Far and away the nation’s most populated state, California has been a focal point for the industry. Legislative efforts have fallen short, but California gaming stakeholders are advancing ballot measures that could bring legal wagering to the Golden State.
A retail-only ballot measure backed by the state’s gaming tribes has already cleared the ballot. Up to three more are fighting to earn a spot as well, including measures that would allow for statewide mobile wagering. It remains to be seen which (if any) of these additional measures make the ballot, but it could drastically change the California – and U.S. – sports betting landscape.
California gaming is marked by ongoing conflicts between the state tribes and its card rooms, which have battled in court for decades. Along with horse racing, professional sports organizations and other possible gaming interests, California sports betting will be directly impacted by these myriad competing interests. All will fight for ballot measures that they feel benefit them the most – likely at the expense of their competitors.
It’s too early to tell how this future (and/or potential) ballot measures will shape California sports betting, but it is set to be the nation’s biggest sports betting prize in 2022.
Georgia
Georgia’s 2021 sports betting bill that passed the Senate will “carry over” to the 2022 session, meaning it will only have to clear the House this year to go pass the full legislature. That leg up aside, Georgia sports betting is still facing a difficult political road.
Though largely championed by Republicans in the GOP-backed General Assembly, statewide mobile sports betting had built bipartisan support in the statehouse, particularly under a proposed regulatory structure that would help channel tax revenue to the state’s popular HOPE scholarship fund. But an unrelated, Republican-backed voting regulation bill led many Democrats to withdraw their support for the unrelated sports betting measure in protest (and led Major League Baseball to take away the 2021 All-Star game from Atlanta), curtailing the sports betting bill’s earlier momentum.
With the voting rights bill now signed into law by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, sports betting stakeholders are hoping 2022 can build back Democratic support. With a large contingent of the Republican caucus opposed to any form of gambling expansion, industry observers believe Democratic votes will be critical.
These political dynamics are just one major factor in what could be a complex and difficult legislative process in Georgia. Still, with the state’s professional sports organizations – and much of the general public – in support of regulated sports betting, there is optimism for a breakthrough in 2022.
Missouri
Few states have introduced as many sports betting bills in the past few years as Missouri, which, once again has already filed legalization proposals ahead of its 2022 session. Though lawmakers and the state’s leading gaming stakeholders largely support legal wagering, larger concerns that have thwarted past legalization efforts remain – and threaten 2022 hopes as well.
Missouri policymakers have been divided over the proliferation of so-called “grey” gaming machines, hundreds of which operate at truck stops throughout the state. Some officials want to legalize, tax and regulate the machines while others want them banned entirely. Grey machined legalization advocates argue the regulated market would be a revenue opportunity on something already seemingly ubiquitous; opponents, including the state’s casino industry (which ostensibly competes with these machines), argue the machines are illegal gambling and operators should not be rewarded.
Though statewide mobile sports betting could bring in millions of dollars in state tax revenue, it is a smaller issue compared to these gaming devices, which largely function like slots machines and would have a larger financial impact on the state. If – or until – some sort of solution is reached for the first time in years, legal sports betting could remain in political limbo.
Kansas
Another state with bipartisan sports betting interest and multiple recent legalization proposals is facing its own political challenges.
Kansas’ 2021 sports betting efforts stalled after Republican lawmakers in the GOP-controlled legislature couldn’t reach a consensus on two wildly different visions for legal wagering. The Senate passed an industry-backed bill that would allow the state’s four casinos multiple statewide mobile wagering skins as well as retail sportsbooks, but it gained little traction in the House. The House backed a version that would grant virtually any lottery retailer the chance to open retail sports betting kiosks, a structure vehemently opposed by industry stakeholders.
The same dynamic will be a key factor in Kansas’ 2022 sports betting considerations. With a compromise logistically impractical from the two current proposed structures, Kansas’ legalization hopes may depend on one side gaining enough traction in the statehouse to push it over the top.
