Indiana Senate Approves Sports Betting Bill
Fans of sports betting in Indiana have been recently treated to some pleasant news thanks to a new move by the state’s Senate to betting on sporting events. The gambling bill which was approved 38-11 is not set to come with a number of changes that the state’s gambling industry will now have to adjust to. In Indiana, sports betting has been missing in action for a very long time but with the new bill, the residents of the state will be able to enjoy the activity.
Current gaming operators in Indiana are now going to have the opportunity to venture into a whole new vertical that will not allow them to be very competitive but also help them to generate even more tax revenue for the state. To put this into perspective, the new law will give the gaming operators the opportunity to rake in more gaming revenue within the regulations of their existing licenses and caps on gaming positions.
“I don’t see this as an expansion of gaming. I see this as an opportunity to leverage our existing assets,” Senator Eddie Melton, D-Gary, commented on the development.
What the Bill Entails
Formerly referred to as Senate Bill 552, the gambling bill’s main quest was to have sports betting legalized in Indiana. This came after the United States Supreme Court abolished PASPA (the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act) and lifted the federal ban on sports betting – this effectively made it possible for the states to decide on whether or not they wanted to allow sports gambling within their jurisdictions.
In Indiana, sports betting will now be allowed at the state casinos, horse tracks, and off-track betting facilities. Moreover, any gambler who will have visited any of the physical sports betting facilities will also be able to place sports bets online once they have signed themselves. In addition to that, the bill also allows in-play betting – for this, the sports betting operators will be required to use official league data for the running events.
As expected, the new gambling law imposes a few restrictions on the state’s gambling industry. For instance, the bill prohibits placing sports bets on high school as well as other amateur youth sports events. College games will, on the other hand, be an exception and gamers will be able to place bets on them just like any other high-profile sporting event.
Now that that the bill has passed the Senate, it is more likely that Indiana’s sports betting industry could go live before the beginning of this year’s NFL season. The bill originally projected the launch date to be September 1.