A proposed piece of legislation seeking to legalize and regulate online sports betting in the state of South Dakota failed to pass a vote in the local House of Representatives.
The bill would have expanded the existing gambling market of the state which currently features only in-person sports betting services in casinos in Deadwood and tribal gambling venues.
The potential addition of mobile sports betting could significantly boost the sports betting activity in South Dakota because it would provide sports fans and punters with the chance of placing wagers from the comfort of any part of the state, no matter where they are. Special geofencing technology would be introduced to verify that each transaction is carried out within the state borders.
Unfortunately, the piece of legislation failed to gather the necessary support in the House of Representatives and the proposed changes to the legal gambling services in the state will now have to wait. The bill sought to provide local voters with the chance to weigh in on whether the state lawmakers should make sports betting legal and expand it with the addition of an interactive option during the following general elections.
Opponents of Proposed Sports Betting Bill Feared by the Measure’s Potential Detrimental Impact
Apart from simply making sports betting legal, the proposed bill also sought to address a few problems that the existing legislation simply does not. The proposal’s opponents have shared fears that the addition of online and mobile betting services would have a detrimental impact on the Deadwood casinos, but the primary sponsor of the bill, Representative Greg Jamison, argued to the contrary.
As Representative Jamison shared, the lack of legal sports betting services and a piece of legislation regulating them is only deteriorating the existing problems in the sector, not helping fix them. In his opinion, the proposed bill would have raised extra funds aimed at helping the preservation of the historic part of Deadwood. Apart from that, the sponsor of the sports betting bill has alleged that black-market gambling has been having a fair share of the overall gambling activities in South Dakota because many local punters still prefer to place bets online rather than travel to a land-based casino to do so.
According to the failed bill’s sponsor, what was currently happening was that all possible sports betting revenues were bypassing the state due to the fact that South Dakotan lawmakers did not care to expand the sector and take advantage of some additional money flows that could be used for good causes. Representative Jamison believes that the implementation of such a measure would help the authorities bring black market users into compliance and allow them to enjoy gambling as a safe pastime, while at the same time bringing revenues to the state and the city of Deadwood.
Opponents of the measure, however, have shared their concerns with the expansion of gambling, saying it could lead to increased gambling addiction rates among the state’s population, especially when it comes to younger people.
