Three Sports Gambling Bills Are Progressing in Montana

Montana is being very serious when it comes to the legalization of sports betting in this state since its lawmakers introduced a total of three bills that will potentially regulate this sort of gambling.

The three Montana bills are going through the legislature processes, where two out of the three have been ed by the House and moved to Senate.

Details on the Bills

Each and every one of the three bills has a completely different regulatory model for sports betting in Montana. The Montana Sport Betting Act, or Bill SB330, has the aim of allowing both land-based and online betting.

But, all online gamblers would have to in-person…

…either in land-based casinos or ing through the licensed operator’s platform while being physically present in the venue.

Also, this sports betting bill proposes a license fee of $1.,000, before all potential taxes on sports betting revenues.

Bill SB330 ed the Senate’s permission after its third reading on April 1, where 36 Senate voted in favor of it, while 14 were against it.

Currently, the bill is waiting in the House where the Business and Labour Committee has to go through it. After the hearing on April 5, we’ll see what the next step with this bill is…

The Second Bill

The other bill named, HB725, also called the Sports Wagering Lottery Amendment of 2019, has the intention of making the Montana Lottery the only sports betting operator in this US state.

The lottery will have the task of operating both online and land-based forms of sports betting, but still, no tax rates are mentioned in this bill.

It was moved to the upper house of the legislature after ing the House. A total of 88 voters were in favor of the bill…

…while only 10 were against it and two abstained.

Now, the bill is sent to the Senate Business, Labor and Economic Affairs Committee. The plan is to discuss it at the hearing that will take place on April 10, together with bill HB475, which also ed House approval.

The Last Bill

Bill HB475 was approved by 87 representatives that voted in favor of it, while only nine were against it and four abstained. It aims to legalize pari-mutuel betting in Montana while maintaining that it should be controlled by the state’s Board of Horse Racing.

Also, it is stated in this bill that licensed racetracks in Montana would gain permission to offer pari-mutuel wagering at the venues, at off-track betting venues or online.

Currently, bill HB475 is assigned to the Senate Business, Labor and Economic Affairs Committee.

So, Now What?

It is important to mention that each of these bills has only two weeks left to progress through the new chamber…

…because the legislative session will end on May 1.

The legislature of the state of Montana will not have a meeting after that until 2021. Although the state was given exclusion from PASPA, it actually did not use it to launch sports betting up until the US Supreme court overturned the ban in May last year.

Source:

“Three sports bills progress in Montana”, igamingbusiness.com, April 4, 2019.