The decision by the US Supreme Court to allow sports betting has been felt across the country.
We’ve previously reported that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) that was enacted in 1992 froze state regulations against sports betting, allowing only the state of Nevada to have legalized sports betting. The state of New Jersey challenged the federal law and the Supreme Court struck it down. With that decision, it is now up to the individual states to decide whether or not to make sports betting legal.
In a previous interview with Raccoon Valley Radio, Iowa Representative Chip Baltimore said legislation to make sports betting legal was passed out of the full House State Government committee and is eligible for floor debate. Baltimore added that he voted in favor of the bill. Iowa Senator Jerry Behn says he’s never been a proponent of gambling in general, due to the nature of gambling being a win-lose scenario versus a win-win scenario.
“The part of me that thinks about gambling per say, I’m not a big fan. But I’m also a realist and I don’t think (about sports betting). I think there may be support in the legislature, whether I support it or not, there may be support in the legislature to get it through. That leaves us with several questions.”
Behn points out those questions include: should it be legalized? Should it be confined to casinos or in sports bars? Does economic development actually occur due to sports betting? Behn adds that he will do more research before he fully commits to the issue.
Wild Rose Jefferson Manager Travis Dvorak was excited to hear about the Supreme Court decision and advocates sports betting to go through the 19 Iowa casinos.
“We have the infrastructure. We have the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission. We’ve spent almost 30 years showing the state of Iowa that we’re really responsible with everybody’s money and that we have transparency in everything that we do. We also have the (Iowa) Department of Criminal Investigations at the casino and they make sure that all of the integrity is there so that everybody is on the up and up. We’re probably 95-percent ready to go if we wanted to do sports betting.”
Again the decision to legalize sports betting has to be made by the Iowa Legislature, which Senator Behn doesn’t believe will be decided on until next year’s legislative session.